Satyagraha In Champaran

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SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

BY

RAJENDRAPRASAD

NAVAJIVAN PUBLISHING HOUSE
AHMED AB AD

Second Revised Edition, September, 1949 : 3,000 Copies
Two Rupees Four Annas

Printed ana jruoupaed rjy Jivanji Dahyabhai JJesai,
Navajivan Press, ' italupur, Ahmedabad

PUBLISHERS' NOTE

After his return to India from South Africa in
1914 Gandhiji tried his method of Satyagraha on
what may be called a mass scale for the first time in
Champaran. How he was led to take up the cause of
the oppressed Champaran ryot and how as a result
was compelled to civilly defy a police order for the
first time on Indian soil has been graphically describ-
ed by him in l\is Autobiography. About the Cham-
paran Satyagraha he however wrote : " To give a full
account of the Champaran enquiry would be to nar-
rate the history, for the period, of the Champaran
ryot, which is out of the question in these chapters.
The Champaran enquiry was a bold experiment with
truth and ahimsa. For the details the reader must
turn to Sjt. Rajendraprasad's history of the Cham-
paran Satyagraha."

The Champaran experiment forms a vital chap-
ter in the development of the Satyagraha method in
India. It is no exaggeration to say that to all stu-
dents of Gandhiji's method of social and political
work a knowledge of the detailed history of the
experiment is indispensable. It is certainly lucky for
the future students of Satyagraha that a man of the
intellectual eminence of Dr. Rajendraprasad was one
of the batch of the Bihar lawyers who joined Gandhiji
in his campaign. It was he who wrote out a well
documented' history of the struggle in Hindi in
1918-19. Later it was translated in English and
published under the title Satyagraha in Champaran

iii

IV

in 1928. That publication has not been available in
the market for a long time now and the demand for
it increased specially after the demise of Gandhiji.

We were therefore pleased when Dr. Rajendra-
prasad permitted us to undertake r its publication.
Readers will be glad to learn that in spite of his heavy
occupation with work of national importance and
weak health Rajendrababu spared time to go over
the whole book again.

We feel sure all lovers of Gandhiji and his way
of work will welcome this history of a unique experi-
ment in truth and ahimsa.
2-9-'49

TO
OPPRESSED HUMANITY

FOREWORD

This book* was written in Hindi in 1919 and
published for the first time in 1922. Its English
version was published in March, 1928. I wrote in
the preface to the Hindi edition as follows :

" On reading this book it will be clear to the
reader that a glimpse of what Mahatma Gandhi had
been doing between 1920 and 1922 regarding the
Satyagraha and Non-co-operation Movement had
been seen in the Champaran Movement. The first
big work which Mahatma Gandhi took up in India
after his return from South Africa was the work
in Champaran. At that time the Home Rule agi-
tation was at its height in India. When we used
to ask Mahatmaji to let Champaran also join that
movement, he used to tell us that the work that
was being done in Champaran was the work which
will be able to establish Home Rule. At that time
the country did not perhaps realize the importance
of the work nor did we who were there do so. But
today when we look back upon the method of
work pursued there and consider the history of the
National Struggle during the last three or four
years, then we can see that the great movement of
today is only an edition of the work in Champaran
on immensely vaster scale. If we read the history
of Champaran and Kaira Satyagraha, we shall see
that whatever the Non-co-operation-Satyagraha
Movement has done or proposes to do is to be found

vii

Vlll

in this movement. Mahatmaji has started the Non-
co-operation Movement to free India from injus-
tice and tyranny under which she has been groan-
ing ; even so had he considered it his duty to save
the tenantry of Champaran from the load of injus-
tice and tyranny under which it was being pressed.
Just as India has taken to Satyagraha and Non-
co-operation after she had failed to get redress by
agitating in the press and on the platform and by
resolutions and questions in Legislatures, even so
had the tenantry in Champaran invited Mahatmaji
after it had failed in similar efforts. Just as in the
present agitation Mahatmaji has invited the coun-
try to accept his programme based entirely on
Truth and ahimsa (Non-violence), even so had he
taught the simple and illiterate tenantry of Cham-
paran the lesson of truth and non-violence, not by
speeches but by his action. Just as he has now
filled the people of the country with a determina-
tion to win freedom of the country by taking upon
themselves knowingly and intentionally suffering
and distress, even so had he taught the tenantry of
Champaran the same lesson by showing his readi-
ness to suffer the hardships of jail life. Just as the
Government officials while knowing the suffering
and distress of the tenantry and knowing the in-
justice done to it, still wanted to obstruct Mahat-
maji and were prepared even to send him to Jail,
even so have they been following a similar course
in regard to the Non-co-operation Movement.
Before Mahatmaji set his foot in Champaran, the
tenantry of the district had at times carried on
strong agitation and had sometimes attempted non-
co-operation also. But the foundation of that

IX

agitation and non-co-operation was not based on
ahimsa (non-violence). The Government and
planters who pin their faith in violence and force
and who have resources to use it effectively always
succeeded in .suppressing their agitation which was
not free from violence. In the Non-co-operation
Movement also wherever we have departed from
the basic principle of non-violence, we have our-
selves supplied the material for our own defeat. If
we always keep before us the principle of non-vio-
lence and carry forward our movement with deter-
mination, there can be no doubt that just as success
was achieved in Champaran and, just as the Akalis
of the Punjab are setting before the country a true
example of non-violent struggle and appear to be
succeeding, even so shall this countrywide move-
ment of non-co-operation succeed. Just as the Gov-
ernment themselves ultimately accepted all that
the tenantry of Champaran had been pressing upon
them, sometimes in sorrow, sometimes in anger,
even so shall the Government and its officers ulti-
mately accept whatever the country demands to-
day."

In the preface to the English edition which was
published in 1928 I wrote as follows :

"To enable the reader to further appreciate
the effect of the intensive work of 1917 I may state
here that within the last ten years indigo has prac-
tically ceased to be grown in Champaran, that the
biggest indigo factories have either been sold or
are being sold, that many of the smaller ones have
disappeared and the ryot of Champaran is a bolder
and more self-respecting individual than he was
ten years ago."

I need hardly add that what happened in Cham-
paran has been repeated, as I had hoped, on a vast
scale in the country as a whole. Champaran became
free from planters' tyranny, India today is free from
foreign rule. The work in Champaran was comple-
ted in a year. The freedom movement there started
by Mahatma Gandhi has taken some 30 years to bear
fruit. The Mahatma lived to see the fruition of his
labours so far as freedom from foreign rule is con-
cerned. He could not complete the work of recon-
struction in Champaran as he was called away
elsewhere by more pressing demands from the coun-
try at large. Even so has remained unfinished the
work of reconstruction of India after the winning of
freedom. I pray to God that his spirit may guide the
people and make them worthy of the great inheri-
tance of his teachings and of the great country to
which they belong.

New Delhi, 5-7-'49 Rajendraprasad

CONTENTS

Chapter Page

PUBLISHERS' NOTE iii

FOREWORD vii

1 LAND AND LIFE 3

2 HISTORY OF CHAMPARAN 7

3 EUROPEANS AND INDIGO CULTIVATION 11

4 GRIEVANCES OF TENANTS 17

5 1907 1909 29

6 SIJARAHBESHI, TAWAN, HARJA 45

7 GOVERNMENT MEASURES 69

8 ABWAB 83

9 StTRVEY AND SETTLEMENT 93

10 THE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI 97

11 MAHATMA GANDHI AT BETTIAH 124

12 INTERVIEW WITH THE HON'BLE

MR. MAUDE 131

13 CONSTERNATION AMONGST PLANTERS 141

14 MAHATMA GANDHI INTERVIEWS

THE GOVERNOR 155

15 THE APPOINTMENT OF THE ENQUIRY

COMMITTEE 161

16 THE SITTING OF THE ENQUIRY

COMMITTEE 170

17 . THE REPORT OF THE CHAMPARAN

AGRARIAN ENQUIRY COMMITTEE 179

18 PLANTERS UNEASY 183

19 THE CHAMPARAN AGRARIAN ACT 190

20 HOW VOLUNTEERS SERVED 194
APPENDIX A: THE CHAMPARAN

AGRARIAN BILL, 1917 204

xi

Xll

APPENDIX B: LIST OF VOLUNTEERS

FROM THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY 219

INDEX 221

SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

1

LAND AND LIFE

Champaran is the name of an administrative
district situated in the north-western corner of the
Province of Bihar and Orissa in British India. To its
north are the Himalayan mountains and the territory
of Nepal ; on its west is the district of Gorakhpur in
the United Provinces ; to its east, is the district of
Muzaffarpur and to its south the district of Saran.
The name of a part of the southern portion of the
Himalayan range is Someshwar, and it falls in part
in Champaran. That constitutes the boundary be-
tween Nepal and Champaran. It is about 1,500 feet
high, but one of its spurs on which stands a fortress
is 2,884 feet high.

. The biggest river in this district is the Nara-
yani which is also known as the Salagrami or the
Gandak. In olden times it flowed right through the
middle of the district ; but it changed its course and
to-day it forms its southern boundary. It rises in the
Himalayas near a place called Tribeni. Boats can
go right up to Tribeni. During summer there is not
much water in the river, but even then country boats
can ply. During the rains the volume of water be-
comes very large and its current very strong. The
river is notorious for alligators and crocodiles. The
Puranic story of Gajagraha has a reference to a
place on the banks of this river in the district of
Saran. The river second in importance to the Gan-
dak which deserves mention is the Chhoti or Small

4 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

Gandak. It rises from the Someshwar Hill and flows
across the district. Up to a certain distance it bears
the name of Haraha, then it becomes the Sikrahana
and further down it becomes known as the Burhi or
old Gandak. Many small rivers rising in the hills
come and join it with the result that the Sikrahana
which during summer has hardly a bed of 100 yards
under water becomes about 2 miles in width at places
during the rainy season. Apart from the smaller
rivers, there is a canal made by the British Govern-
ment known as the Tribeni Canal.

It has already been said that at one time the
Gandak flowed through the middle of the district.
The river has changed its course, but traces of its
old course are still there in the shape of lakes, about
43 in number, in the whole district. Many of these
are deep and remain under water throughout the
year. Their water, however, is not always drinka-
ble. It is used in indigo factories many of which
have been constructed on the banks of these lakes.

Champaran has two kinds of land. To the
north of the Sikrahana the soil is hard and the level
of the land low. It is, therefore, fit for paddy culti-
vation. It cannot grow indigo. It is called hangar
locally. To the south of the Sikrahana, the soil has a
large admixture of sand in it and paddy cannot be
grown on it. But it is very good for maize, wheat,
etc. It is very good for indigo plantation also. It is
locally known as bheet. The lands in the Terai or
hill valley are very fertile, and although the climate
of the locality is unhealthy for men, it is very good
for crops. In these parts the crop most grown is
paddy which may be considered the staple crop of
the district. About 56 p. c. of the cultivated land

LAND AND LIFE 5

is paddy growing. There is a saying current "among
villagers which may be translated as follows :
" Majhowa is a wonderful country where even crows
do not care for rice/' Majhowa is the name of the
biggest pargana in Champaran.

The climate of Champaran is considered to be
worse than that of many other districts of Bihar.
In the Terai it is very bad indeed. Malarial fever
rages there, and after the rainy season almost every
house becomes a hospital. The climate of the south-
ern portion also cannot be said to be good. As
v,isA*it/c*ied with other districts of Bihar it is cool.
For this reason it is liked by Europeans. There is
something in the nature of the soil, water and climate
of places on the banks of the Sikrahana and the
Gandak which causes goitre to the residents. In
these parts the people, too, are not intelligent. One
comes across many persons who are lame, decrepit
and with goitres. There are many idiots also among
them. They do not know how to count, cannot talk
coherently, nor understand what others say, and
smile and laugh idiotically. Such idiots are locally
known as'lagar, and in other districts of Bihar, 'bagar
of Majhowa is a well understood expression. It is
said that in some places even lower animals have
goitres.

There are only two towns in the district
Motihari, which is the headquarters of the district,
and Bettiah which was -formerly a centre of trade
and is even now the seat of the Maharaja of Bettiah
and the headquarters of a subdivision. The area of
the district is 3,531 square miles. There are 2,841
villages in it and the population according to the
census of 1911 is 19,08,385. About 2 p. c. of the

6 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

population live in towns and the rest live in villages.
The population per square mile is 540. Popu-
lation in southern and eastern portion of the
district, which border on Saran and Muzaffarpur,
is denser, while that in the north-western portion
which has a bad climate is thin. It' is worth men-
tioning that large numbers of people have emigrated
from Saran and Muzaffarpur and settled in this dis-
trict and their number is increasing. They come and
settle here as agriculturists.

Like other districts of Bihar there is prepon-
derance of Hindus in this district. Their number is
16,17,456, while that of Mussalmans 2,86,067 only. In
and near Bettiah there is a large population of
Christians. It is said that the wife of Raja Dhrub
Singh of Bettiah was ill and a Christian missionary
cured her. The Raja was pleased and about 1745
A. C. set apart some land for the Christian missionary
there. The number of converts began to increase
and they now count 2,775 souls. The peculiarity of
the Christians of Bettiah is this that there is no dif-
ference in the mode of life and dress of Christians
and other inhabitants of the place except that their
women wear a kind of gown which Hindu women do
not wear. Hindus and Mussalmans in this district
live in more or less the same way as in other districts
of Bihar. There is a special caste of Hindus which
one does not find in other districts. They are known
as Tharus. They are 34,602 in number and live
mostly in the Terai area. They can bear the climate
of that locality better than other people. They are
simple and truthful. They shun litigation and know
the art of agriculture very well. The least interfer-
ence or oppression causes them to vacate their

HISTORY OF CHAMPARAN 7

villages and emigrate to other and safer places. They
grow paddy and live quite happily.

The language of the Hindus and Mussalmans of
Champaran is a dialect of Hindi known as Bhojpuri
which agrees almost entirely with the language of
Saran. In the dialect of the south-eastern portion of
the district adjoining Muzaffarpur district there are
traces of the influence of Maithili. The language of
the Tharus is also Bhojpuri, but it contains some
words of their original primitive language.

2
HISTORY OF CHAMPARAN

Champaran is a corrupt form of the word
Champaranya. It is mentioned in the Puranas. In
its jungles were the places of penance of Rishis. It
is said that Tappa Duho Suho is named after Durani
and Surani, the two wives of Raja Uttanapada.
Dhruva was the son of this Raja and he was born in
this tapovana and did his penance here. The
ashrama of Valmiki Muni was also situate within
this district. Janaki after her exile took shelter in
this ashrama of *Valmiki and her two sons Lava and
Kusha were born there. The battle between Rama-
chandra and his two sons Lava and Kusha took place
somewhere within this district. The story is current
that the capital of Birat Raja where the Pandavas
lived during their exile was also in this district, and
a place called Barahi is still pointed out as that
capital. It is at a short distance from Ramnagar.
It is believed by the local people that the kingdom
of Raja Bideha was also here and he used to live at

8 SATTAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

a place called Jankigarh which is also known as
Chankigarh.

The Lichchhavis reigned in Champaran about 600
B. C. They fought against Ajatashatru of Magadha,
were defeated and had to pay tribute to Magadha.
Traces of forts are still extant at Nandangarh and
other places and they are said by historians to belong
to the time of the Lichchhavis. Coins have also been
discovered in these places which are of about 1000
B. C.

Numerous memorials of the Buddhistic period
are found in Champaran. Buddha is said to have
travelled through this district in his journey from
Plasi to Kusinar. His ashes are said to be lying in
some stupa at Lauria Nandangarh or near about it.
Many pillars erected by Ashoka are still seen in
several parts of the district. Most of the places
where such pillars stand are known as Lauriya, that
is, the place of the pillar. It appears from this that
at one time the Buddhists had great influence there.
Raja Ashoka started on his pilgrimage from Patali-
putra (Patna) and went to Ramapurwa passing
Kesaria, Lauriya, Areraj and Lauriya Nandangarh,
and he set up pillars in all these places. In those
days Nepal also formed a part of 'the kingdom of
Magadha, and this used to be the route for officials
going from Patna to Nepal via Bhikhna Thorce.
The Chinese travellers travelled by this route. Both
Fa Hian and Huen Tsang have mentioned these
places.

After the Buddhists, the Gupta kings reigned
over Champaran and Raja Harshavardhana's flag also
flew there. The history of the period prior to the
13th century A. C. is not available in a reliable form

HISTORY OF CHAMPARAN 9

but it is said that at one time the Cheddis also reign-
ed over Champaran.

Evidence is available that later on Champaran
passed under the sway of the kings of Tirhoot. The
two kingdoms - % deserving of mention are those of
Simra and Sugaon. In the 13th and 14th centuries,
the Mussalmans invaded Champaran but they did
riot quite establish themselves there. At the begin-
ning of the 16th century, Sikandar Lodi took posses-
sion of Tirhoot and thenceforward Tirhoot which
included Champaran became a part of the Muslim
Empire. No separate history of Champaran is avail-
able after this, as it thenceforward became mixed up
with that of other districts. In the 18th century
when Alivardikhan became Governor of Bihar and
Bengal he invaded Champaran and he was helped by
the Afghans of Darbhanga. His invasion was success-
ful and he carried away a large amount of booty.
Sometime later the Afghans who had helped him re-
belled against him but were defeated by Alivardi-
khan. Two of these Afghans, Shamsherkhan and
Sardarkhan, took refuge in Bettiah Raj. Alivardi-
khan for this reason invaded Bettiah with the result
that the Raja of Bettiah handed over those Afghans
with all their dependants to him..^

About 1760 there was a war between Shah
Alam and the English in which the latter were suc-
cessful. One of the helpers of Shah Alam was Kha-
dim Husainkhan, the Subedar of Purnea. After his
defeat he fled towards Bettiah. Miran and General
Claude pursued him but on account of the accidental
death of Miran by a stroke of lightning General
Claude had to retrace his steps. But before doing so
he realized a tribute from the Raja of Bettiah. The

}Q SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

Raja of Bettiah shortly afterwards raised the stand-
ard of revolt and Mir Kasim invaded Bettiah and
suppressed the rebellion. In 1765 Champaran was
also granted to the English by Shah Alam along with
Bengal and Bihar. It should not bg inferred from
this, however, that there was peace after this event.
Shortly afterwards Raja Jugalkishor of Bettiah de-
clared war against the English but he was defeated
and fled to Bundelkhand leaving his Kingdom. After
this time the condition of Champaran was very de-
plorable. The tribute payable to the English went
on dwindling. The English thought that without the
return of Raja Jugalkishor, Bettiah i would not be-
come prosperous again and that their revenue would
not increase. They accordingly asked Raja Jugal-
kishorsingh to return and made over to him \he two
parganas of Majhowa and Simraon in 1771 ; and two
other parganas of Mehsi and Babra were given to his
kinsmen Srikrishnasingh and Awadhutsingh.

In 1791 when the Decennial Settlement was
made the two parganas of Majhowa and Simraon
were settled with Raja Jugalkishorsingh's son, Bir-
kishorsingh, and the two parganas of Mehsi and
Babra which had been granted to Srikrishnasingh
and Awadhutsingh came to constitute the Sheohar
Raj. Two other Zamindaris of Madhuban and Ram-
nagar also came into existence about that time. This
settlement was confirmed in 1793 at the time of the
Permanent Settlement. Sometime later pargana
Babra was transferred to the district of Muzaffarpur
and only small parts of Sheohar Raj remained in
Champaran. There are several small Zamindaris
now in existence but the principal Zamindaris in the
district are even now only three, namelv. Bettiah.

EUROPEANS & INDIGO CULTIVATION H

Ramnagar and Madhuban. It should not be under-
stood, however, that these Zamindaris had their ori-
gin about this time. The Bettiah Raj is a very old
Raj. It was granted for the first time by Emperor
Shahajahan to Ujjainsingh and his descendants
have always hefd it. Similarly the Ramnagar Raj is
also an ancient Raj. It is said that the ancestors of
the Ramnagar Raj came from Chitor and conquered
Nepal and they founded Ramnagar. They got the
title of Raja from Emperor Aurangzib in 1676 A. D.

3
EUROPEANS & INDIGO CULTIVATION

The area of the Bettiah Raj is about 2,000 sq.
miles. Formerly communication was not as conve-
nient as it is now. Therefore for better management
the estate was divided into small parts and leased
out to lessees. The lessees had to look after the parts
leased out to them, to realize rent from the cultiva-
tors and to pay the same to the Estate. In the earlier
days all lessees were Indians and they had been there
from before 1793. Later on Europeans who engaged
in indigo and sugarcane cultivation began to take
leases from the Bettiah and Ramnagar Estates. The
oldest indigo factory was that established by Col.
Hickey at Bara. Later on Turkaulia, Peepra, Moti-
hari and Rajpur factories were established. As time
went on, new factories were established and they
went on replacing the Indian lessees in the Bettiah
Raj. In the early times these factories were estab-
lished only in places where the soil was fit for indigo
and sugarcane cultivation. But when they had

12 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

established their influence fully, some Europeans
began to settle in the north-western portion of the
district also in about 1875. The soil being unfit for
indigo cultivation, they had to find out other means
of income. In this way the whole of the district be-
came honey-combed with European factories and
now-a-days there are about 70 such factories, a de-
tailed account of which will be found in later pages.
For building their factories they took small plots of
land from the Bettiah Raj on perpetual lease. The
Bettiah Raj had become encumbered with debt in
about 1888. Mr. T. Gibbon, its manager, raised a
loan of about 85 lakhs in England to liquidate that
debt. It was arranged that the Bettiah Raj should
settle a portion of its Estate with European factory
owners in perpetuity, and these latter would pay the
reserved rent towards the liquidation of the debt.
Accordingly lands fetching five lakhs and a half per
year were settled in perpetual or mokarri lease with
fourteen factories. The result was that this perma-
nent interest in the land strengthened their position
very much. Besides this they also went on taking
temporary leases from the Raj. Some villages were
settled in perpetuity with factories by the Ramnagar
Raj also ; but it is difficult to find when and under
what circumstances this took place. Within recent
times some factories have also purchased Zamindari
rights in some villages, but that is to a very small
extent only. At present there are 36 European les-
sees under the Bettiah Raj of whom 23 deal in indigo.
More than one half of the district is in the possession
of European lessees.

In the beginning the planters used to cultivate
sugarcane along with indigo. But from about 1850

EUROPEANS & INDIGO CULTIVATION 13

they diminished sugar-cane plantation on account of
the larger profit derived from indigo. Ever since
then the planters have carried on indigo cultivation
under two systems : (a) Zerait i.e., depart-
mental cultivation under their direct supervision,
(b) Asamiwar i.e., cultivation through cultivators
or tenants.

Zerait. The factory owners under this system
used to cultivate the land in their possession with
the help of their own ploughs and bullocks. This
land used to be either the proprietors' (their lessors')
private land or land in which the factory owner had
acquired rights of occupancy. The entire burden of
cultivation used to be on the factory. The only con-
nection that the tenants had with this cultivation
was that they were liable to render service on the
land or to have their bullocks and ploughs impressed
for such cultivation under the orders of the factory.
.The factory had no doubt to pay something for this
kind of service but it will be seen later on that
the wages used to be so low that the tenants could
never feel satisfied. To make matters worse the fac-
tory underlings used to deduct a discount from the
wages so paid. Mr. J. A. Sweeney, the Settlement
Officer, stated in his evidence before the Champaran
Agrarian Committee that " so far as he was aware no
factory was fully self-contained then in the matter
of cultivating its rural lands ".

Asamiwar. Under this system the factory got
indigo grown by the tenants. This used to be done
in several ways, but the most prevalent method was
that known as Tinkathia. Kushki and Kurtauli sys-
tems also deserve mention as other methods.

14 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

About the kurtauli system it was said by the
Commissioner of Patna in 1885 : " The kurtauli
lease is a new institution dating from a very few

years back There is growing up in our midst

and in spite of our efforts at beneficent legisla-
tion, a system under which the ryot mortgages
his entire holding and the very site of his house for
a period probably extending beyond his own life-
time, redemption being contingent on the repayment
of a loan ; the ryot, to use the common expression, is
selling himself body and soul into hopeless servi-
tude."

This system is not widely prevalent in Cham-
paran but there is no doubt that it is very harmful
to the interests of ryots.

As said above, Tinkathia was the most prevalent
system in Champaran. According to it the factory
owners got the tenant to cultivate indigo in a portion
of his holding for which a fixed price was paid. About
1860 the portion so reserved for indigo used to be
5 kathas per bigha or one fourth of the tenant's
holding. Sometime later, about 1867, this area was
reduced from 5 kathas to 3 kathas per bigha. Since
then the system came to be known as tinkathia (or
the system of three kathas). When the factories
were being established for the first time, their owners
had no permanent interest in land. They used to
take short term leases from the Bettiah Raj and to
grow indigo on lands in their possession under the
Zerait system. But that was in small quantities.
They would place temptation in the way of the Bet-
tiah Raj by offering to take a lease on a reserved
rent equal to the gross rental realizable from tenants,

UUKOPEANS & INDIGO CULTIVATION 15

and when they got the lease, they would get indigo
cultivated by the tenants for their own benefit. They
used to make much, profit from indigo. The only
losers were the tenants^ It is thus apparent that
whenever a factory got possession of a village, its
first attempt wolild be to bring as much land as possi-
ble under indigo cultivation ; and for this they
used to cheat, cajole and coerce the simple
tenants into agreeing to grow indigo on their lands.
After sometime these agreements used to be reduced
to writing as sattas. One of the conditions in such
agreements or sattas used to be that the tenant
would grow indigo on 3 kathas per bigha of his hold-
ing for a number of years sometimes for 20, 25,
or even 30 years. The particular plot of his holding
which would be reserved for indigo would be select-
ed by the factory. The land would be ploughed and
otherwise made fit for cultivation by the tenant
under the supervision of the factory. If the crop was
good a fixed price per bigha would be paid to the
tenant. But if the crop was not bumper, then what-
ever the reason for it may be, the tenant would get
only a reduced price. If the tenant failed to grow
indigo, he was liable to pay a heavy sum by way of
damages for his breach.

There is evidence to show that both the Zerait
and.Asamiwar systems of cultivation have been in
vogue ever since indigo cultivation was introduced
into Champaran. It has already been stated that
originally the indigo used to be grown by tenants on
5 kathas out of each bigha of the holding, and this
was reduced in 1867 to 3 kathas per bigha. In 1909
the Planters' Association passed a resolution that
this area should be further reduced from 3 to 2

16 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMP A RAN

kathas per bigha but it is not known if this resolu-
tion was given effect to by the factories. It is cer-
tain, however, that many factories did not observe it
and many did not require to do it. The reason for
this will be stated hereafter. Similarly the price
payable by the factories to the tenants was also raised
from time to time under pressure from the Govern-
ment and the tenants. Before 1867 the tenant used
to be paid Rs. 6-8-0 for every acre of indigo. After
the disturbances of that year the planters under
Government pressure increased the rate to Rs. 9 per
acre. This was further raised in 1876 to Rs. 10-5-0,
in 1897 to Rs. 12-7-0 and in 1909 after Mr. Gourlay's
Report to Rs. 13-8-0 per acre. Apart from this there
has been an idea ever since 1878 that no rent should
be payable by the tenant for the area under indigo ;
but this rule has not been followed by the factories.

The cultivation of indigo was more extensive in
Champaran than in any other district of Bihar.
During the survey of 1892-97 indigo used to be grown
on 95,970 acres, that is, on 6.63 per cent of the fand
under cultivation. Out of this about one fourth was
cultivated under the Zerait system and the remain-
ing three-fourths was cultivated under the Asami-
war, that is, the tinhathia system. In those days
33,000 labourers used to work in indigo factories.
Later on by reason of the introduction of German
synthetic dyes, profits fell and the planters reduced
the cultivation of indigo, so much so, that in 1905
the area under indigo cultivation fell to 47,800 acres
arid in 1914 to 8,100 acres. In 1914 war was declared
between Germany and England and the import of
German dyes ceased. Indigo began to look up once
again, and the planters increased its cultivation. In

GRIEVANCES OF TENANTS 17

1916 indigo was grown on 21,900 acres and in 1917
on 26,848 acres, out of which about two thirds were
grown asamiwar and only one-third under the zerait
system. The planters, however, did not lose much
on account of the fall in the price of indigo, as they
devised means, *to be detailed later, to transfer the
loss to the shoulders of the poor tenants.

. There are two kinds of indigo Sumatra indigo
and Java or Natal indigo. Before 1905 only Sumatra
indigo used to be grown. For this crop the land is till-
ed from Aswin to Phalgun (September to March) and
the seed is sown in March. The crop is cut in Asarh
(June to July), and this is known as the Morhan
crop. The stump that is left in the field is cut once
again in Bhadon (August to September) and this
is known as khunti. The Java or Natal indigo is sown
in Kartik to Aghan (October to November) and is
cut at the same time as the Sumatra crop. From 100
maunds of leaves and stalk about 10 seers of indigo
cakes are prepared.

4
GRIEVANCES OF TENANTS

The tinkathia system has been mentioned in the
last chapter. It is no exaggeration to say that this
was at the root of all the troubles and miseries of the
tenants of Champaran.

In 1860 there was a great agitation in Bengal
against indigo. In those days Babu Harishchandra
Mukerjee was of great help to the tenants and the
British Indian Association also sympathized with
them. The miseries of the tenants melted the hearts
of the Christian Missionaries. There were many

18 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

among British officials, too, who sympathized with
the tenants. Of those Mr. William Herschell, who
later on became Sir William Herschell, and Mr.
Ashley Eden, who became the Lieutenant-Governor
of Bengal as Sir Ashley Eden, were the most noted.
At their suggestion and on pressure from them the
Government appointed a Commission with full
powers to inquire into the grievances of the indigo
tenants. Mr. Seton Kerr who was the secretary to
the Government of Bengal was the president of the
Commission and its members were Mr. Richard Tem-
ple, who later became the Lieutenant-Governor of
Bengal as Sir Richard Temple, Mr. Fergusson, a
planter, Mr. John Sale, a missionary, and Babu
Chanrlramohan Chatterjee who was an influential
member of the British Indian Association. Tenants
from the districts of Nadia and Jessore, where the
indigo trouble was most acute, were brought under
arrangements made by Harishchandra Mukerjee to
Calcutta to give evidence before the Commission.
Harishchandra Mukerjee himself gave evidence. Lal-
bihari Day in his Bengal Peasant Life has drawn a
beautiful but heart-rending picture of the planter and
the ryot of Bengal of those days. Mr. E. W. L. Tower
who was at one time the Magistrate of Faridpur
stated in his evidence before the Commission as fol-
lows :

"There is one thing more. I wish to state that con-
siderable odium has been thrown on the Missionaries for
saying that ' Not a chest of indigo reached England
without being stained with human blood. 1 That has been
stated to be an anecdote. That expression is mine, and
I adopt it in the fullest and broadest sense of its meaning
as the result of my experience as Magistrate in the Farid-
pur District. I have seen several ryots, sent in to me as

GRIEVANCES OP TENANTS 19

a Magistrate, who have been speared through the
body. I have had ryots before me who have been shot
down by Mr. Forde (a planter). I have put on record, how
others have been first speared and then kidnapped; and
such a system of carrying on indigo, I consider to be a
system of blood-shed."
It appears 'from the Report of the Commission

that the grievances of the tenants of Bengal were as

follows :

(1) The contract which the tenants were made to
enter into with the planter regarding indigo was not
voluntarily accepted by them but they were coerced.

(2) Some advance of money used to be forced upon
them for growing indigo.

(3) They had to give their valuable time to the
cultivation of indigo while it could have been more profit-
ably employed in growing other crops.

(4) Their best lands were taken up for indigo grow-
ing. Sometimes even land on which another crop was
growing used to be taken up for growing indigo and the
standing crop destroyed.

(5) There was no certainty about the indigo crop
with the result that the tenants very often could not repay
even the advance which became a heavy burden on them.

(6) The underlings of factories used to oppress them.

(7) The factory owners and managers also used to
employ force and beat them.

In the opinion of the Commission almost all the
complaints were well-founded. They held that the
tenants were not at all benefitted by the indigo culti-
vation. The planters reserved the right of selecting
the lands for indigo and sometimes they caused land
in which other crops were growing to be ploughed
up for indigo. The factory amlas (employees) used
to oppress them in various ways. A tenant who had
once taken an advance could never extricate him-
self. The Commission recommended that if the
tenants were to be made to grow indigo they should

2Q SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

be paid at a rate which would satisfy them, and that
if the system of contracts for indigo was to be con-
tinued, they should be for short terms and their
accounts should be settled every year; the land on
which indigo was to be grown should be mentioned
in the contract itself. The planter should carry the
indigo plant from the field to the factory at his own
expense. The tenants should not be required to pay
the price of the indigo seed. The tenants should be
given the right to grow any other crop on the indigo
land after the indigo crop was cut or that if they
wanted to reserve the crop for seeds, they should be
permitted to do so. Separate accounts should be
kept for indigo and the rents payable by them. They
also recommended that arrangements should be
made for the protection of tenants. Sir John Peter
Grant, the then Lt.-Governor of Bengal, accepted
the recommendations almost in their entirety. The
result of the action taken on this Report was that
within a short time indigo cultivation disappeared
altogether from Bengal. The reason of this was that
without the oppressive system then in vogue, the
planter could not make any profit out of indigo
plantation.

About the same time the question of Bihar
indigo planters was also raised but there was no
Harishchandra Mukerjee in Bihar to take up the
tenants' grievances, nor was there any one among
the tenants who kept himself informed about the
Calcutta Commission. It is true that some Bihar
planters also gave evidence before the Commission
from which it appears that the same system was in
vogue in Bihar also. There was a difference only in
one respect. The system of advances was not so

GRIEVANCES OF TENANTS 21

oppressive to tenants in Bihar as it was in Bengal ;
but the other grievances were practically the same.
Although the tenants of Champaran have ever
since been clamouring for redress of their grievances
no effort was .made to remove the root causes of
their troubles until 1917, so much so that when
Mahatma Gandhi arrived in Champaran in 1917 to
enquire into the grievances of tenants, the planters
began to say that they had no trouble with the
tenants, and that all the trouble was created by out-
siders. But this was later proved to be absolutely un-
founded before the Commission. The Hon. Mr. Maude,
in his speech on the Champaran Agrarian Bill before
the Bihar Legislative Council, said as follows :

" I have gone at what I am afraid is rather wearisome
length into the past history of what may perhaps best be
described as the indigo difficulty, because it is constantly
asserted, and I have often heard it said, that there is in
reality nothing wrong or rotten in the state of affairs,
that every one concerned is perfectly happy so long as
they are left alone and that it is only when outside in-
fluences and agitators come in that any trouble is expe-
rienced. I submit that this contention is altogether
untenable in the light of the history of past fifty years of
which I have endeavoured to present to the Council a brief
sketch."

It is this tale of woe that is given in brief in the
following pages.

The first indigo disturbance in Champaran of
which any record is available was in 1867. It began in
Lalsaraiya * factory. The tenants of Mouza Jaukathia

* It is said of this factory as follows in the Champaran
Gazetteer :

"At one time it was the most renowned indigo factory In
Bihar, being the home of M. James Macleod, who was known
as the king of planters. His stable contained 120 horses.

22 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

refused to grow indigo and sowed other crops
on indigo lands. The residents of other villages fol-
lowed suit. The factory bungalow caught fire and
was burnt. The planters even in those days tried to
fasten the responsibility of this fire* on the tenants
as they did later on in connection with another fire
in 1917, but no evidence of this was available. The
complaints of the tenants were the same in 1917 as
they were in 1867. The Commissioner of Patna in
his report regarding this disturbance wrote to the
Government that it was not only that indigo cultiva-
tion brought no profit to the tenants but that it caus-
ed actual monetary loss to them ; they were made to
give contracts for indigo ; their best lands were taken
for indigo ; indigo cultivation was a very difficult
job ; factory underlings used to oppress them. This
disturbance caused a great consternation amongst
the planters. Indigo cultivation was stopped in a
way and it seemed as if it would disappear altogether
from Champaran. The planters pressed their case
before the Government and the latter also helped
them. As desired by the planters a Small Cause
Court of two judges was established by the Govern-
ment at Motihari to speedily dispose of cases insti-
tuted by planters for recovery of damages from the
tenants for breach of their indigo contracts. The
result was that what the 'planters wanted was achiev-
ed without their having to institute suits, and the
efforts of the helpless tenants to get rid of the indigo
oppression failed. There is no wonder that it was
so, as the agriculturists as a class are timid and par-
ticularly those of a place like Champaran are very
simple. The mere fact of- the establishment of a
Court at the instance of the planters was enough to

GRIEVANCES OF TENANTS 23

cow them. Who can say that the tenants did not
regard this action of the Government as one to help
and uphold the planters ? Again, what chance was
there for them to succeed in this unequal fight ? The
few cases whicfc did actually go to the Court were
decided against the tenants. There is no doubt that
even if it be assumed that the Government was not
actuated by any desire to help the planters, the
tenants believed this step to be for that purpose. It
may be stated here that whatever sympathy the Gov-
ernment may have had with the tenants, it has
always been exhibited in such a way that every at-
tempt of the tenants to free themselves from indigo
has been met by the Government with some action
which went to help the planters. We shall see later
on how special registrars were appointed and that
will make the point clear. The Champaran Gazetteer
says about this disturbance of 1867 as follows :

" The disputes between the ryots and the planters had
at one time threatened to become very serious. The local
officers almost unanimously reported that the cultivation
of indigo had become very unpopular, and that there was
not a ryot who would not abandon the cultivation if he
could, and this state of things was ascribed as much to the
insufficiency of remuneration which the ryots received as
to the exactions, oppressions and annoyance to which they
were exposed at the hands of the factory servants."

The Provincial Government wrote to the Gov
ernment of India as follows about it :

" The time had passed when it could be hoped to carry
on indigo concern profitably by forcing on the ryots a cul-
tivation and labour which was to them unprofitable. The
necessity of giving adequate remuneration had been re-
cognized by the planters although they had too long refused
to recognize the necessity of making such an advance in

24 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

price but managers of the concerns now saw clearly the
danger which they had so narrowly escaped and would In
their own interest be careful to guard against falling Into
such an error again."

The planters under pressure from Government
and finding that without increasing the price of
indigo it would be impossible for them to continue
in Champaran, raised it from Rs. 6/8/- to Rs. 9/- per
acre. The Local Government consequently did not
find it ne9essary to take any further action. But the
Government of India, reviewing the matter, made a
most significant statement :

" The evils of the system were so great that the inter-
position of the Government might become unavoidable
unless measures were taken to remove such elements of
the system as were unjust and oppressive."
What the Government of India had anticipated
came soon to be true and shortly after this rise in
price signs of discontent among tenants began to
manifest themselves in 1871. The price of indigo had
no doubt been increased but no steps had been taken
to remove the defects of the oppressive system. In
1871 the Lieut.-Governor, in reviewing the report of
the Commissioner of Patna, wrote as follows :

" The practice under which the ryots were compelled
to give up a portion of their land for indigo is the com-
pulsory feature of the system to which His Honour has
more specially alluded as contrary to free trade principles.
Again the practice of forcing the cultivators to exchange
such of their lands as may be arbitrarily selected from time
to time by the planter or his servant is an intolerable
grievance as is well set forth by Mr. Forbes even where
there is what purports to be an agreement. In these cases
it is obvious that the character of the agreement is such
that no person of power and influence equal to that of the
planter himself would think, as mere matter of business,
of entering into it."

GRIEVANCES OP TENANTS 25

The Press continued to comment on this subject
in those days and the attention of the Government
was also drawn to it from time to time. In 1875
the Commissioner of Patna proposed that a commis-
sion be appointed to inquire into indigo grievances.
Sir Richard Temple was then the Lieut.-Governor.
He thought that the appointment of a Commission
would lead to agitation and he accordingly gave
direction to district officers to decide disputes between
planters and tenants in an impartial manner.

When the root cause of discontent had been left
untouched, it was not to be expected that peace could
be restored. In 1877 Mr. Stuart Bay ley, the Commis-
sioner of Patna, wrote that although the appoint-
ment of a Commission had been considered inoppor-
tune, " the fact remained that there was much dis-
content manifest enough to local officers ".

About this time on the retirement of Sir Richard
Temple, Sir Ashley Eden * became the Lieutenant-

* He had stated in his evidence before the Bengal Indigo
Commission as follows :

" My opinion is that in no instance within the last six years
at least have ryots entered into any large contracts for culti-
vation of the crop and that with the exception of factories
which have large extent of chur lands cultivated, the indigo
cultivation is in no instance the result of free agency but that
it is compulsory."

Explaining the grounds on which his opinion was formed
he stated :

" First, I believe it to be unprofitable and therefore I can-
not believe that any ryot would consent to take up that culti-
vation involving as it does serious pecuniary loss to himself.
Secondly, it involves an amount of harassing interference to
which no free agent would subject himself. Thirdly, from the
consideration of the act of violence to which the planters have
been compelled to resort to keep up the cultivation as proved

26 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

Governor of Bengal. As has already been stated
above, Sir Ashley Eden had been Magistrate at the
time of indigo disturbances in Bengal and was fully
acquainted with the activities of planters. He thought
that instead of taking action openly which might
cause agitation among planters, it would be better
to get them to agree to some reforms. He accord-
ingly impressed upon them that the practice of indigo
cultivation under the asamiwar system was harm-
ful to the interests of tenants, and that they
should therefore raise the price of indigo, and that
good feelings between the tenants and planters
would be restored only if the latter got indigo culti-
vated on purely business principles. He emphasized
the fact that it was not proper for the planters to take
forced labour from their tenants.

The planters finding this stiff attitude of the
Lieut-Governor which might be the cause of
future trouble, established the Bihar Planters'
Association which is still in existence. In its very
first sittings, the Association decided to enhance the
price of indigo from Rs. 9/- to Rs. 10/5/- per' acre.
It was also resolved that no rent should be charged

by the criminal record of Bengal. Fourthly, from the admis-
sion of the planters themselves that if the ryots were free
agents they would not cultivate indigo. Fifthly, the necessity
under which the planters state themselves to be of spending
large sums in the purchase of Zamindaries and rights of other
description giving them territorial influence and powers of
compulsion without which they would be unable to procure the
cultivation of indigo. Sixthly, the statement of ryots and the
people generally in the districts in which I have been.
Seventhly, as soon as the ryots became aware of the fact that
they were by law practically free agents they at once refused
to continue cultivation."

GRIEVANCES OF TENANTS 27

from the tenants for the land on which indigo was
grown. But it must be said with regard to this last
resolution that many did not care to observe it. With
regard to other complaints of the tenants the Asso-
ciation passed several resolutions which require to
be stated as showing what grievances the tenants
then had and that in spite of these resolutions they
remained unredressed and were stated before Mr.
Gourlay in 1909 and were found to exist in 1917 at
the time of Mahatma Gandhi's inquiry. Among the
rules then adopted, some of the most important were
that the price of indigo should be at the rate of Rs.
9/- per bigha measured with a pole of 6i cubits,
that even in the absense of a stipulation to the con-
trary, the planters could not without the consent of
the tenant exchange the indigo land, and that
even if the indigo land was changed, the land
of one tenant should not be exchanged with that of
another, and that if any complaint was made against
any member of the Association, the Association
should be entitled to inquire thereinto and if that
member did not obey its orders, he would be liable
to be removed from the Association. After some
correspondence with the Government they also made
a rule that if a tenant grew indigo on 3 kathas for
every bigha of his holding his rent would not be
liable to be enhanced.

When these rules were formed, the Local Gov-
ernment thought the discontent would disappear
and it took no further steps. But it was the opinion
of Sir Ashley Eden that one of the reasons of the
tenants' discontent was that Zamindars used to lease
out their villages to planters who thereby gained
great power over the tenants and got an opportunity

28 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

to oppress them. But nothing however was done to
remedy this ; on the other hand, as has already been
shown above, the planters managed to make their
hold stronger on the Bettiah Raj. On account of the
Bettiah Raj being encumbered, a loan of 85 lakhs
was raised in England in 1888, and for its repayment
a large number of villages was given in perpetual
leases to planters. Such leases were granted to 14
factories of which the most important were three,
viz., Turkaulia, Peepra and Motihari. Besides,
temporary leases continued to be given to the
factories. Consequently, although to all outward
appearances there was peace, discontent among
tenants was smouldering. In 1887 there was a great
famine in Bihar and the people in Champaran suffer-
ed very much. The planters at that time raised the
price of indigo further from Rs. 10/5 to Rs. 12/-
per acre. But even this did not satisfy the tenants
and their discontents found expression from time to
time. In 1906 the tenants of Telhara factory murder-
ed its manager, Mr. Bloomfield. Many of them were
prosecuted and the Sessions Judge sentenced three
of them to death, but on appeal the sentences of
death were set aside and they were given six years'
imprisonment.

5
1907 - 1909

There is a limit to forbearance. Even an ant,
if you tread upon it, opens its small mouth to bite
you in revenge. It has been shown in the previous
pages that the tenantry of Champaran thoroughly
disliked indigo cultivation. They were daily praying
for relief against it. Things went on somehow up
to 1907. With the beginning of 1907 signs of dis-
content began to manifest themselves in the Bettiah
subdivision. Some tenants of Sathi factory expressed
their unwillingness to grow indigo on the ground
that it was unprofitable. On account of heavy flood
in 1906 they had lost their paddy crop and they were
in pecuniary difficulties. The planters on the other
hand were insisting on having indigo grown. These
were the causes of the discontent. In March 1907
some tenants had submitted a petition to the Magis-
trate at Motihari in which they stated among other
things

" That for six or seven years, the Sathi Factory is
oppressing your petitioners in many ways and is exacting
from them higher rent and begar (forced labour) and
forcing your petitioners to cultivate indigo against
your petitioners' wishes without adequately paying for
them and bringing false criminal cases against your peti-
tioners and other tenants to execute indigo sattas."

When Mr. F. C. Coffin, the manager of the Sathi
factory, saw that it was not possible to have indigo
cultivation according to old methods, he sought the
help of Government officials. Whatever the reasons

29

30 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

may have been, some of the tenants were made spe-
cial constables by the Magistrate so that there might
be no breach of the peace. But this did not prevent
it. There were several criminal cases in connection
with indigo cultivation. In July 1907, there was a
criminal case in the villages of the Sathi factory in
which one Sundaraman Rai, a gumasta (agent) of
the factory, charged Foujdar Dube and others with
having prevented one Kalicharan Teli from serving
in the factory and that they had assaulted factory
servants who had gone to fetch him. The defence
of the accused persons was that this case had been
got up only to coerce them into submission. Mr. E.
L. Tanner was the Magistrate of Bettiah at the time
and he convicted the accused persons.

On the seventh of August 1907, the tenants of
the factory submitted a petition to the Collector of
Champaran in which they fully set out their grievan-
ces. In it they stated :

" That instead of growing indigo at three kathaa
per bigha, the factory introduced a new system. In half
the area the factory had compelled your petitioners to
grow indigo and in the other half jai (oats) and that it
allows only Rs. 15A per bigha for jai although according
to out-turn deducting expenses of cultivation, it comes up
to almost Rs. 45/- per bigha.

" That if the total area of indigo and jai cultivated
by your petitioners does not come to three kathas
per bigha, the factory for balance area realizes paddy at
the rate of 25 maunds per bigha and if it is not paid in
time, its price is realized at the market-rate at the time
of realization, and that the factory does not pay any com-
pensation for paddy or its price thus realized .... That bul-
lock carts, ploughs and labourers of your petitioners and
petitioners themselves are forced to work at J of the ordi-
nary wages and sometimes for nothing."

1907 - 1909 31

They finally prayed for inquiry. Mr. T. S. Mac-
pherson, the Magistrate, directed Mr. Tanner to hold
the inquiry and in his order said :

" The matters raised are of great Importance to the
peace of the villages concerned and a sifting inquiry as
to the existence of the causes of complaint specified is
essential. It should be as wide and unrestricted as possible.
I can see that certain persons are ring-leaders, but it does
not at all follow that the agitation which is so widespread,
is without foundation."

It appears that Mr. Tanner's inquiry did not
satisfy the tenants, as Shaikh Gulab, who was con-
sidered to be the leader of the tenants, along with
other tenants submitted a memorial to the Lieut.
Governor in which he said about this inquiry :

" That the Sub-Divisional Officer of Bettiah went only
to three Mouzas and made inquries of some of your memo-
rialists and then went away leaving the enquiry incom-
plete."

About the beginning of November, the Sub-
Inspector of Police of Lauriya Thana submitted a
report to the Magistrate of Bettiah that some tenants
were dissuading others from growing indigo and
paying rent and that they should be bound down
under section 107 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The Magistrate took securities from several tenants
for keeping the peace. The poor tenants felt very
much oppressed by these proceedings. Many of them
even went to jail, many had to furnish security >for
good behaviour and many were made special con-
stables. A memorial that was submitted to the
Lieut.-Governor evoked no satisfactory response. But
in spite of all this the tenants did not agree to grow
indigo ; and ultimately the Sathi factory had to give
up indigo cultivation. Thus a heavy load was taken
off the shoulders of the tenants.

32 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

But it was not to be expected that the factory
would take things lying down. It found out another
means of realizing money from the tenants, so that
the loss of indigo was made up in another way.

In 1880 the Sathi factory had excavated a canal
for irrigating its indigo land. It had 'given an agree-
ment to the Bettiah Raj whereby it had bound itself
to maintain this canal and to permit tenants to irri-
gate their lands by its means without any charge.

So long as the tenants had cultivated indigo they
had been permitted to irrigate their lands without
any charge. When in 1908 the factory stopped cul-
tivating indigo, it started realizing Rs. 3/- per bigha
from the tenants for supplying water. This tax was
named pain kharcha (canal tax). The tenants never
freely consented to pay this tax ; but the factory got
them to execute agreements for it. It is alleged that
those tenants who refused to execute agreements
were forced to do so. A special Registrar was depu-
ted by the Government to register these agreements.
The tenants knew what it meant to raise their heads
against the factory ; they consequently executed
them even against their will. The factory promised
in these agreements to supply enough water for irri-
gation, but this promise remained a promise on
paper only. Even tenants, whose fields could never
be reached by the water of this canal and who were
never benefited thereby, had also to pay this tax of
Rs. 3/- per bigha. At the time of the survey of
1913-15 the tenants of the Sathi factory refused to
pay this water tax. The Survey Officers made in-
quiries and found that this yearly irrigation tax had
been realized even from those tenants who had never
derived any benefit from the canal. After a sifting

1907 - 1909 33

inquiry the truth came out and these agreements
were cancelled and this tax came to be regarded as
an illegal exaction and was stopped. The tenants
gratefully accepted this decision and now if tho
tenant wants to take water from the canal, he gets
it after paying for it.

!t used to be the practice in the Sathi and some
other factories of the Bettiah sub-division to get
indigo grown without any written agreement. In
1907-08 the tenants of Sathi factory stopped growing
indigo. This news spread to the neighbouring villa-
ges also. They also began to stop indigo cultivation.
One Shaik Gulab had taken a prominent part in stop-
ping indigo cultivation in the Sathi villages. His
example put new life into other villagers. Shaikh
Gulab had to suffer imprisonment and much pecu-
niary loss for his activities but he rose very much
in the estimation of the villagers. They began to
look up to him as their true friend and leader. There
was another factory named Parsa factory at a short
distance from the Sathi factory. Signs of discontent
among the tenants of this factory became visible in
September 1908. A big fair is held at Bettiah at
the time of Bijaya Dashami. People from distant vil-
lages visit this fair. The tenants converted this fair
into an instrument to propagate their ideas. Shaikh
Gulab and one Sitalrai, who was an inhabitant of
a village near Parsa began to persuade the tenants
not to grow indigo. Some people went so far as
to devise means for driving out the planters. On re-
turning home from the fair the tenants began to
talk among themselves about these matters and their
ideas began to grow. Sitalrai devoted himself heart
and soul to the uprooting of the system of indigo

34 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

cultivation. He used to collect the tenants at night
and to preach to them not to grow indigo. The
tenants were made to take oath in these meetings.
This agitation was, however, confined to the tenants
of the factories of Mallahia, Parsa, Baeriya, and
Kundia. It is said that the tenants had so organized
themselves that on hearing a particular singular
sound, the tenants of several villages would assemble
in no time at a particular place. On the 16th October,
1908, the tenants commenced the disturbance
openly and a certain peon of the Parsa factory was
assaulted. It is alleged that they also attacked the
manager of the factory. News of the disturbance
was immediately sent to the Government. The Gov-
ernment sent military police to check it. On the
26th October Sitalrai and a wealthy Marwadi,
Radhumal, were arrested. People say even now that
in those days the military police and the Gurkhas
oppressed them very much, and particularly the
tenants have not yet forgotten the name of Inspector
Knight, nor can they forget those black days. Most
of tfce newspapers commented on those incidents at
the time. The Statesman of Calcutta deputed a spe-
cial correspondent who wrote on the 27th November
as follows :

" A remarkable state of affairs exists at the present
moment at Bettiah in the Champaran district in Bihar.
Disputes between the planters and the ryots have led to
acts of hostility, and in order to protect the European
population large forces of Bengal armed police and Gur-
khas have been drafted into the town and its neighbour-
hood. Fifty rounds of ball ammunition have been served
out to each member of the Bihar Light House and in parts
the division has assumed a perfectly warlike appearance.
Seven cases have been reported to the police in which
Europeans were attacked. Other stories are current in the

1907 - 1909 35

neighbourhood of equestrians being ambushed, of frantic
rides along jungle paths through crowds of ruffians armed
with lathis and of inoffensive folk being molested on the
high way. Police Inspector Knight was badly mauled by
a bndmash with a lathi. Mr. Maxwell Smith, a planter, was
chased by a mob and a turn-turn belonging to Mr. Moore,
Factory Manager", was burnt at Muzaffarpur.

" On Wednesday last nineteen persons were convicted
here under section 143 I.P.C. for being members of an
unlawful assembly and sentenced, besides graduated fines
in each case, to the full term of six months' solitary con-
finement. There are now no less than 200 prisoners await-
ing their trial at Motihari under various charges, chiefly
for assaulting Europeans, for arson and under section 505
for inciting class against class. The principal accuse^ in
this group is Sitalrai who holds ryoti lands under Mr.
S. E. Coffin of the Sathi factory in Bettiah Sub-division.
Radhumal, a Marwadi banker, and Ramswarath his gumasta
were arrested recently."

On the 18th November, 1908, there was a meet-
ing of the Bengal Legislative Council and the Hon.

Mr. Duke stated as follows :

" The attention of the Government has been directed
to the disturbances in Champaran ever since they com-
menced. Its attention was first attracted by the actual
occurrence of the breaches of the peace, for no representa-
tion had been addressed to it or any of its officers on behalf
of the persons who created the disturbance until breaches
of the peace had taken place and the law had been
put into motion to repress them. Government is not
aware that any persons had to be released in consequence
of the absence of its sanction to prosecute them, as sanc-
tion was granted in the cases in which it was asked for.
It is not possible to answer in further detail at present,
but Government has set itself to restore order and repress
crime. The neighbourhood is generally quiet and as soon
as it is reasonably certain that there will be no further
resort to violence, a full enquiry will be made into the
causes of the outbreak. An experienced officer has been
selected and furnished with full instructions as to the

36 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

subjects to be examined; but no such enquiry could be
undertaken without greater danger to the public peace or
usefully conducted so long as the peace of the district
continues to be disturbed."

The Magistrate of Bettiah was unable to take
up all the prosecutions for trial and, the Government
deputed a Special Magistrate Mr. Goode. There were
about fifty cases in which more than 300 persons
were convicted. Radhumal admitted his guilt and
was let off with a fine of Rs. 3,000. Sitalrai was
sentenced to 2i years 7 rigorous imprisonment and a
fine of Rs. 1,000. The Government further posted
an additional punitive police force in these parts
which remained there from November 1908 to April
1909. The entire cost of the force was realized from
the tenants and it is estimated that this came to
about Rs. 30,000.

It has been saicj above that whenever the tenants
of Champaran have tried to free themselves from the
miseries of indigo cultivation, the planters have
always laid the blame of the agitation among them
on the shoulders of outsiders. On this occasion too
they tried to do the same by starting the theory that
Bengalis had created this ferment among the tenants
for political reasons. But this accusation was wholly
baseless and the special correspondent of the
Statesman, reviewing the situation, wrote on the
2nd December 1908 as follows :

" The expediency of a departmental inquiry by the
government into the troubles of the planters and the
grievances of the ryots will probably have been suggested
by my last letter upon the present situation in this sub-
division of Champaran. From enquiries I have made
today, it seems that some action of the Government is
generally regarded as not only desirable but necessary and
as the wish is father to the thought, it is hinted as a

1907 - 1909 37

possibility that a Commission may be appointed when the
Police Court cases are over in order that a thorough in-
vestigation may be made. In the meantime, in view of
this not unlikely contingency, it -is only fair to those who
are connected in any way with the case that I should
publish the result of my interview with the ryots and so
to collate and confront them with the recorded statements
of planters.

"At the outset I must record certain alleged acts of
reprisal on the part of the factory servants and so-called
' friendly villages ' who, now that they are backed by
bayonets and rifles, have, it is said, turned upon the
' enemy ' in some parts of the district with retaliatory lathi
blows. During the riots of the ryots some hard knocks
were occasionally given as the evidence shows, and some
of those who were knocked in the first place have, it is
rumoured, been returning the compliment with compound
interest. While walking early this morning through the
bazaar an individual of the cooly variety came run-
ning to me with a lamentable tale of assault and beating
committed upon him by a factory peon. He shed more tears
in five minutes than I should otherwise have considered
possible in the case of a man, and pointing to his body he
indicated by weird gesticulations a great weal which clear-
ly indicated the impression of a bound bamboo. I gave
him some pice and told him to place his complaint before
the Magistrate, and as he received the money with favour
and the instructions with disfavour, there it seemed the mat-
ter had ended. Upon my return to the place of tents, how-
ever, an ox- wagon drew up to my door, and by most
pitiful lamentations my attention was drawn to the
occupants. What I saw then is common enough to those
who have trailed through a campaign, but unless war has
actually broken out in this usually peaceful province it
was a sight to be wondered at. The wagon contained a
party of wounded men. One had a blood-stained bandage
round his arm. Another had his jaws tied up in a cloth
and upon this there were blood stains ; upon the party
generally there were contusions and abrasions. A white-
haired person in the group who did all the howling seemed
to have nothing the matter with him at all, however, and

38 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

it was he who told the story, the truth or falsity of which
must be left to another tribunal, as to an alleged assault
by factory servants, in the absence of the proprietor, upon
his unfortunate companions. If any reliance can be placed
upon the garrulous individual in question the planter
would be well advised if in future he keeps a sharp eye
upon his ' friendlies '.

"I have been requested by some of the planters to
deny the statement which has evidently gained some cre-
dence, that the recent agitation was engineered by Ben-
galee agitators. The observation appeared, I am told, in
a certain Calcutta newspaper. One has only to live five
minutes in Bettiah to realize the absurdity of the conten-
tion made by the correspondent in the present instance,
for there is an inherited antipathy, undefined as Indian
antipathies are, between Bengalees and Biharees which at
once precludes the argument. A Bengalee anarchist would
probably get as much chance of a hearing in Bettiah as
Moody and Sankey might have done in Mecca. On the other
hand, it would, generally speaking, be just as profitable
to expound a problem of Euclid or to deliver an exposition
upon somatology as to preach politics to the Bettiahis. The
existing trouble is purely agrarian. The ryots had held
their holdings for generations, they rarely pass beyond the
limitations of the farms ; they know nothing and care no-
thing about the hubbub of the outside world; the entire
interest of each one of them is centred upon his own indi-
vidual paddy patch. In the police court evidence it is said
that the ryots conspired to ' drive the Sahibs out of the
country', but the country in their case means the Bettiah
Sub-division, not the Indian Empire, and it is erroneous
to suppose that the agitation has anything to do with
Bengalee anarchism.

" I interviewed today some persons whose names need
not be mentioned, within the 'eloka of a certain factory
where the agitation commenced in the first instance. The
ryots in this elaka have not renewed the sallas of their
forefathers, and they contend in the absence of any agree-
ment to the contrary, that they are under no obligation to
cultivate indigo on their farms for the use of the factories.

1907 1909 39

The Question of Compulsion

" ' Has any compulsion been made in order to induce
you to grow indigo ? ' was the first question put to the
visitors from Sathi.

" ' Since last year there has been no compulsion/ said
one of the men, ' either as regards indigo or any other
crop for the benefit of the factory. We have merely to
pay Rs. 3 per bigha in order to evade the obligation to
devote three kathas in the bigha to indigo cultivation.'

" ' By that payment you acknowledge the existence of
some sort of obligation ? '

" ' Yes,' replied the second man, 'under the old satta
we were paid Rs. 19 per bigha for growing indigo.
Although we have now no formal sattas we have hitherto
been growing indigo under the conditions contained in the
former contracts. For about twenty-five years we have
worked without sattas. For the past thirty years no new
agreements have been introduced until recently. I have
never seen a aatta. The Sahib was quite willing to go on
without them, seeing no necessity for their re-introduction.
Last year, however, the Sahib purchased about 400 rupees
worth of agreement stamps, and in some places, by force,
he compelled the assamis to sign new sattas. They have
since petitioned the Collector stating that they were com-
pelled by the Sahib against their will to subscribe to these
new contracts. Under the sattas a ryot receives Rs. 15
per bigha for oats and Rs. 19 for indigo ; but from our own
country crops we can make Rs. 40 to Rs. 50 per bigha
A bigha would realize from 60 to 70 maunds of oats, and
in the rainy season, when oats (a winter crop) have been
harvested, we are able to get a full crop of paddy, which
may possibly come to from 60 to 65 maunds, which would
realize about Rs. 120.'

" ' What do you mean when you say that your brothers
were forced to sign new agreements ? '

" ' They were compelled by the institution of false
charges and imprisonment. Last year there were several
cases against my relatives and they were bound down to
keep the peace/

40 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

" ' Is it not a fact that after the indigo is cut, you are
at liberty to grow rabi for your own use on the indigo
land ? '

" ' Wo are not allowed to do so. The land must be
fallow until the next sowing in order to increase its product-
iveness. The introduction of Java seed? is an experiment
and at present it occupies the ground for three years to
the exclusion of country crops. We do not want to grow
indigo. As regards sugar-cane, it does not pay us suffi-
ciently to cultivate it for the factories. We can make much
bigger profits if we grow crops for ourselves in our own
way.'

" * If that is true, how do you account for so much
sugar-cane being sent to a factory by outside ryots, who
are under no such compulsion as you suggest ? '

" ' It comes about in this way. The ryots grow cane
in order to convert it into golden sugar. They have not
the requisite machinery for converting their entire crops
and what remains of the cane is sold to the factories. The
factories have sufficient lands of their own both for indigo
and sugar, and they should therefore allow us the freedom
of doing as we like/

" ' You were contented and happy in the past while
working for the Sahibs. Why have you changed your atti-
tude so suddenly ? '

" ' At a time when food stuffs were cheap, we were
willing to grow indigo. For the last few years, however,
there has been draught and scarcity and the prices of
cereals have gone up and we can now make larger profits
from our own crops. When growing indigo we are en-
gaged in that work throughout the year and our own lands
are neglected and we have to pay bakahees to the Sajawal,
the Tokedar, and Ziledar of the factories ; if we do not,
they make us do extra work which is objectionable to us
and the dhangara who did menial work in the past, at
4 as. per day, have been sent away and we are compelled
to do their task ourselves, at 5 or 6 pice. For these reasons
we do not wish to contract with th& Sahibs for the culti-
vation of indigo/ "

1907-1909 41

After the restoration of peace the Government
deputed Mr. W. R. Gourlay, who was at the time
Director of Agriculture and who had also served as
the Magistrate of Champaran formerly, to inquire
into the grievances of the tenants. He arrived at
Bettiah on the 20th December, 1908, and began his
enquiries. The tenants of Champaran even now
gratefully remember the name of Mr. Gourlay and
say that if all the Government Officials were like him,
all their miseries would have disappeared long ago.
Mr. Gourlay, after a thorough enquiry, submitted a
report to the Government. That report is still a
sealed book to the public as it was not published.
Several times questions were raised in the Bengal
and Bihar Councils, particularly by the Hon. Babu
Brajakishoreprasad who was a member of the Ben-
gal Council in 1910. But the Government never gave
satisfactory replies and flatly refused to publish the
report. The Press also severely criticised this action
of the Government but to no effect. The result was
that the suspicion of the public became deeper that
in Mr. Gourlay's report there must be the finding
that the tenants' grievances were well founded and
that the planters were to blame. The Hon'ble Mr,
Maude, while introducing the Champaran Agrarian
Bill into the Bihar Council, said as follows regarding
this report :

"The result of that inquiry (Mr. Gourlay's) was a
re-statement of all the old grievances which figured in all
previous inquiries. Mr. Gourlay found that the cultivation
of indigo on the Asamitoar system did not pay the ryct,
that the ryot had to give up his best land for indigo, that
the cultivation required labour which could be more pn>-
fitably employed elsewhere, and generally that the system
was irksome, and led to oppression by the factory servants."

42 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

After this report, the Lieut-Governor, Sir
Edward Baker, like Sir Ashley Eden on a previous
occasion, explained the situation to the planters and
had conferences with them at Darjeeling and Patna
in 1909-10. The result of these conferences was
that the price of indigo was once again raised by
12 1 per cent, and it was decided that the tenants
should be made to grow indigo in 2 instead of 3
hathas per bigha .of their. holding and they should
not be required to raise any crop other than indigo
for the factories. It has to be stated with regret that
in spite of this decision, some planters continued to
cause tenants to grow in 3 kathas instead of 2
kathas not only indigo but other crops also, such as,
sugar-cane and barley. It must also be added here
that after Mr. Gourlay's report, the Government re-
leased all those tenants who had been convicted and
were in prison. It is the belief of the people that
that was also a result of Mr. Gourlay's report.

The tenants of Champaran remained quiet for
some time after these incidents. But it should not
be inferred from that that their grievances had been
removed. The oppression of the planters continued
as before and the question was discussed from time
to time in the Council and in the Press. When the
King Emperor and Queen Empress came to India in
1911-12, they visited the Nepal Tarai near Bhikhna
Thoree for shikar, About 15,000 tenants assembled
at Narkatiaganj railway station to lay their grievan-
ces before them. The story is that they shouted out
their grievances, but on His Majesty's inquiry about
the cause of the shout, it was represented to him as
an expression of welcome and joy on their part. It
is no doubt true that they expressed their joy and

1907-1909 43

welcome but they also represented their grievances.
To their misfortune, however, only the former reach-
ed the ears of Their Majesties and not the latter.
When His Majesty reached Calcutta a number of
tenants went there and sent in a memorial to him.
This was forwarded under His Majesty's commands
to the Government of India for proper action ; but
it was unfortunately returned to the senders on the
3rd February, 1912, by the Government of India for
the reason that it had not been submitted through
the proper channel ! The hopes which the poor
tenants had formed from Their Majesties' visit were
thus dashed to the ground.

In 1913 the Bihar ee which was the principal
daily paper of Bihar wrote several articles about
Champaran.*

By that time Bihar had been separated from
Bengal. Sir Charles Bayley had been appointed
Lieut.-Governor of Bihar. It appears that the
articles in the Biharee produced only one result,
and that was that Babu Maheshwarprasad, the fear-
less editor of the paper, was by some under-hand
means removed from the editorship, and the proprie-
torship of the paper which was formerly owned by
a limited company, passed into the hands of a rich
Raja, who had held the largest share in the company.

In 1911-12 and 1912-13 the tenants submitted
several memorials to the Government, the Collector
and other Officials. But so far as is known it does
not appear that any action was taken on them which

*See the daily Biharee llth, 12th, 13th, 15th and 28th
September, and 1st, 25th, 26th, and 27th October, 3rd December
1912 and llth January, 4th, 22nd and 23rd February, 2nd April,
and 6th July, 1913.

44 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

could assure them that there was any one before
whom they could lay their grievances. It so happen-
ed that in some cases these memorials were for-
warded to the very planters against whom complaints
had been made in them. The Amrita> Bazar Patrika
of Calcutta, commenting on this incident, unearthed
an old incident of the Muzaffarpur district in which
the Magistrate of Hajipur had referred for report to
Mr. Konstam of Singhia Factory a complaint against
him and this "My dear Mr. Konstam" practice (of
writing demi-official letters) continued in Champa-
ran up to 1911-12 as was shown by the articles in the
Biharee. In November 1912 Sir Charles Bayley
visited the Sonepur fair and there he was received
with great eclat by the planters. They presented an
address to the Lieut.-Governor in reply to which His
Honour said as follows :

" I need not say how fully I and my colleagues share
3'our hope that the relation of the planting community
with the officials, zamindars and ryots will always remain
on the present satisfactory footing."

Reviewing this speech of His Honour, the Indian
Planters' Gazette, which is the organ of the planters,
wrote as follows :

" Peculiarly apposite too at this particular juncture was
His Honour's reference to the satisfactory relation between
the planting community and the officials, zamindars, and
ryots, and we hope that the vivacious editor of the Biharee,
the erudite author of the articles on the planter and the
ryots that have lately filled blank spaces in our Patna con-
temporary, will digest this public official utterance which
so quietly and effectively gives the Biharee the lie direct.
Our contemporary called upon God and Government to
hear while he bore witness to planter oppression and
planter extortion. Will the Government at any rate regard
his testimony as false ? We hope that our contemporary

SHARAHBESHI, TAWAN, HARJA 45

has the courage born of convictions, we hope that his
editorials were not merely attempts to foment discontent
and discord."

It was the misfortune of Champaran tenants that
just at a time when they were sending memorial after
memorial to ttie Lieut-Governor detailing their
grievances, His Honour thought it fit to give the
planters a certificate of character. But it is a law of
nature that truth can never be suppressed. Truth
always finally conquers. Whatever Sir Charles Bay-
ley may have said in reply to an address of welcome,
the whole truth came out in 1917.

6
SHARAHBESHI, TAWAN, HARJA

We have now arrived at a period when by their
adroitness the planters put a heavy burden on the
tenants for ever to carry. Till then the factories
used to get indigo grown and whatever of force or
oppression there was, was in connection with the
cultivation of indigo. But the synthetic dyes ot
Germany had reduced the price of indigo to a very
great extent and indigo cultivation was not as pro-
fitable as it used to be formerly. In some places
there was actually loss. Many factories were closed
in the district of Saran ; and so also many of then,
stopped work in the districts of Muzaffarpur, Dur-
bhanga, and Monghyr, and those that remained were
growing other crops, like other agriculturists, on
their land. Champaran was not altogether free
from the effect of this competition, and there, too.
where in 1892-97 indigo had been grown on an
average on 91,000 acres, every year, in 1914 only

46 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

8,100 acres were under indigo. The Government
made great efforts to save the indigo industry.
Many scientists began to investigate the subject, but.
there was no chance of any profit from indigo culti-
vation visible. Even indigo grown and manufactur-
ed by labour which was not paid for, or if at all at a
very low and nominal rate, and which the tenants
were compelled to cultivate at a loss to themselves,
instead of yielding profit now became a source of
loss to the planters. Inscrutable are the ways of Pro-
vidence ! The tenants saw that what they had not
been able to accomplish by their petitions to the.
Government and occasional outbursts of violence was
now going to happen of itself, and they began to see
the dawn of hope for release from indigo oppression.
But who knew that behind the rays of dawning light
a storm was gathering which for some time at least
would over-cast the brightness and spread darkness
once again ?

The planters saw that they must give up indigo
cultivation. The profits- that used to be derived
from indigo cultivation could not be made from culti-
vation of ordinary country crops. They had also
invested large sums in tools and plants in their
factories, and all this would be a dead loss. They
would be reduced to the position of ordinary agri-
culturists. They began to think of means by which
all the loss should be transferred from themselves
to the tenants, and from 1912 to 1914 they were en-
gaged in this enterprise of transferring the loss that
should have been borne by them on to the shoulders
of the tenants. They devised various means to
accomplish this, and of these Sharahbeshi, Tawan,
Hunda and Harja deserve special mention.

SHARAHBESHI, TAWAN, HARJA 47

The land in north-western Champaran is not fit
for indigo cultivation. When factories were esta-
blished in those parts, indigo cultivation was not
successful. They used to grow paddy, and in some
places sugar-cane and oats ; but these were not so
profitable, and the great source of their profit was
realization of abwabs or illegal cesses. It will be
shown later what these abwabs were. Here these
factories are mentioned only because it was one of
them that discovered a means of making up the loss
to it from loss of indigo. There is a factory in these
parts at a place called Murla. When this factory saw
as early as 1897-98 that there was no hope of profit
from indigo in those parts, it began to realize from
the tenants a sort of cess as a substitute for indigo
cultivation. It was done as follows. A tenant who
had to grow indigo in a certain portion of his holding
did not do so, as the land was not fit for it. He grew
paddy instead. The factory took the paddy grown
on the land which would have been under indigo if
the soil was suitable, and paid a nominal price for it.
In some places instead of paddy, its price was rea-
lized. This system is called hunda. In effect, it
amounts to an enhancement of rent. Take an exam-
ple. A tenant had a holding of 20 bigha* and the
rent payable for it was Rs. 60 per year. He had to
grow under the tinkathia system indigo on 3 katha
per bigha of his holding, that is, in this case on 3
bighas ; but he grew paddy on these 3 bighas also
and raised 60 maunds of paddy. The factory would
take these 60 maunds of paddy at a nominal price,
that is, it would realize besides Rs. 60/- the rent
legally payable by him, 60 maunds of paddy at a
nominal price. When the Government came to know

48 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

that hunda was being realized in this way from the
tenants, it declared the hunda to be an abwab
or illegal cess and ordered that it should not be
realized. Perhaps the Murla factory stopped rea-
lizing hunda under this order but it began to realize
harja or damages at the rate of Rs. 3/- per bigha of
the holdings of the tenants. The damages were sup-
posed to be in lieu of the release given to tenants
from the cultivation of indigo which was never
grown there and for which by act of God the soil
was utterly unfit. About 1905 the Motihari factory
introduced a similar system of release from indigo
by realizing harja. It began to realize, apart from
and over and above the legal rent, about Rs. 2 to
3 per bigha from the tenants. When the Gov-
ernment became aware of this, it again considered it
illegal and tried to stop it. But the Government was
not as impartial on this occasion as it had been on
the previous occasion. It notified to those factories
which had only temporary short term leases that if
they did not stop realizing abwab, their leases regard-
ing Bettiah Raj villages would not be renewed by the
Court of Wards. It, however, made an addendum
to its notification which deprived it of all its value.
Although it had now become clear to every one that
on account of the loss involved in the business, the
factories were even more anxious than the tenants to
get rid of indigo cultivation, the Government added
in its notification that if a factory insisted on indigo
being grown by a tenant in pursuance of the terms
of a contract between the planter and the tenant, and
the latter did not wish to grow it, then it would be
open to the planter to release the tenant from the
obligation on taking damages. No sooner was this.

SHARAHBESHI, TAWAN, HARJA 49

declaration made than the planters began to realize
damages from the tenants.

It has been shown above that the indigo planters
knew that their position was most unsatisfactory.
They thought it was not wise to consult the Govern-
ment often on this matter ; and that it was necessary
to devise some permanent solution of the difficulty.
Readers are aware that in the villages of the Bettiah
Raj the planters have acquired two kinds of rights.
In some villages they were mokarridars, i.e., perpetual
lessees on a fixed rental which is not liable to en-
hancement. The Raj has no connection or concern
with these villages except getting from the lessees
the fixed rent. The planters have all the rights oi:
a landlord, i.e., proprietary rights, in those villages
subject to the payment of the fixed rent to the Bet-
tiah Raj. If the income from these villages was en-
hanced, it would go not to the Raj but to the planter,
the lessee ; and if the income fell, the loss too would
fall on the lessee. The Raj would be entitled to get-
only the fixed rent from the lessee. The other clas>:
of villages are those which were leased out by the
Raj to the factories for short terms. It is open to
the Raj either to resume possession of such villages
on expiry of these terms, or to renew their terms to
the same lessee or to lease them out to other persons.
If 'the income of these villages is enhanced, the
enhancement after the expiry of the term, will go to
the Raj which may for this reason resume possession
of the villages or resettle them on an enhanced re-
served rent with the lessee.

It is necessary to understand the distinction be-
tween these two classes of rights, as the planters
employed separate devices in the two different classes

50 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMP^RAN

of villages to realize money from the tenants. The
readers must also know one other fact. Bihar which
was formerly a part of Bengal, has a tenancy law
called the Bengal Tenancy Ate. This Act lays down
and defines the rights and liabilities of landlords and
tenants regarding agricultural landk. According to
it there are two classes of tenants one class having
the right of occupancy and the other having no such
right. The rent payable by a tenant having the
right of occupancy can be enhanced in one of two
ways ; namely, by contract between the landlord
and the tenant or by order of Court. But a landlord's
right to enhance the rent by private contract is
limited. The reason of the rule is that in the view
of the legislature it is not safe to leave the tenant at
the mercy of the landlord who could coerce him in
various ways to agree to large enhancements. The
Bengal Tenancy Act accordingly provides that a con-
tract between landlord and his tenant enhancing the
rent by more than 2 annas in the rupee or 12i p. c.
is void. In 1883 when this measure was before the
Legislative Council the planters induced the Gov-
ernment to add as one of the exceptions to this rule
that if the rent payable by a tenant was lower than
the rent usually payable in the locality by reason of
the tenant's obligation to grow a particular crop on
his holding for the benefit of the landlord, and if the
landlord released the tenant from this obligation,
then any contract by which the rent was enhanced
even by more than 2 annas in the rupee would be a
valid contract. This was a good weapon in the
hands of the planters, and they decided to employ
it. Mr. Irwin, the manager of the Motihari factory,
took legal opinion on this matter and it is said that

SHARAHBESHI, TAWAN, HARJA 51

Sir Rashbihari Ghose of the Calcutta Bar gave it as
his opinion that if the conditions laid down in the
section were fulfilled, then the tenant might enter
into a valid contract enhancing the rent by more
than 2 annas in the rupee. Mr. Irwin represented
the matter to* the Government. The Government
said that inasmuch as it had no materials before it
upon which to find that the rent in Champaran was
below the usual rate by reason of an obligation on
tenants to grow indigo, it would give no opinion in
the matter, and the planters might do as they were
best advised but that if their action was found to be
illegal, the responsibility would be theirs.

When the planters had armed themselves with
legal opinion and the Government, too, did not stand
in their way, they placed before the tenants a pro-
posal to enhance their rent. It has been pointed out
above that if the rent of mokarri villages was en-
hanced, the enhancement would accrue to the bene-
fit of the mokarridar or the perpetual lessee, i.e., the
planter. They, therefore, decided to have enhance-
ments of rent in such mokarri villages. Mr. Irwin of
the Motihari factory began the work of enhancing
rents in 1911-12 by getting contracts executed by
tenants. -Turkaulia, Peepra, Jalaha, and Shirni fac-
tories were not slow to follow the example of the
Motihari factory. The planters say that the tenants
willingly agreed to the enhancement of their rent,
and they gladly accepted to pay Re. 1/10/- or
Re. 1/12/- where they had been paying Re. 1 only.
It is urged by them that the tenants were sick of
indigo cultivation, and when the planters promised
to release them from the obligation to grow indigo,
they welcomed the proposal and gratefully accepted

52 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

the proposed enhancement. The tenants, on the other
hand, say that they knew that indigo was now bound
to go. It was no longer profitable to the factories.
They knew, too, that in the adjoining districts of
Saran, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga m,any of the fac-
tories had been closed and they were hoping that on
account of natural causes these factories would dis-
appear from Champaran also. They urge that, there-
fore, when the proposal to enhance rent in lieu of
release from indigo cultivation was placed before
them, they flatly refused to agree and told the plant-
ers that in lieu of release from the dying indigo
cultivation they would not put this burden of en-
hancement of rent on their and their children's
heads, and that if it suited the planters, they might
insist on the cultivation of indigo. The interests of
the planters at this time, however, demanded that
indigo cultivation should cease and tenants should
pay in cash instead. They were not any more pre-
pared to consider the interests of the tenants now
than they had ever been before. The tenants assert
that all the contracts for enhancement of rent which
they were supposed to have made were forcibly taken
from them. Not one or two but thousands and thous-
ands of tenants solemnly made the assertion before
Mahatma Gandhi that they signed or put their thumb
impressions on enhancement contracts under compul-
sion after being dishonoured and beaten. Those who
had the misfortune or rather the good fortune to hear
the statements of these thousands and thousands of
the simple tenants of Champaran are firmly of opi-
nion that the tenants never willingly agreed to these
enhancements the opinions of those in authority
and the Courts to the contrary notwithstanding. It

SHARAHBESHI, TAWAN, HARJA 53

is, however, true that every tenant was not roughly
dealt with, every tenant was not tied to a tree and
then beaten with leather straps, every tenant was
not shut up in a chickenpen or in some dirty place in
the factory jjeons were not quartered at the house
of every tenant, Dhangars (a low class untouchables)
may not have been posted obstructing the egress
from and ingress into the house of every tenant,
every tenant may not have been tied down and
thrown in the hot day sun or a heavy load placed
on his head or breast it may be that the services of
barber, washerman, carpenter and smith may not
have been stopped in the case of every tenant, every
tenant may not have been made the victim of a false
prosecution in the criminal courts, the roads lead-
ing to every village may not have been closed and the
grazing lands may not have been closed against the
cattle of every tenant ; but this much is certain that
some of the biggest and most respectable and influen-
tial among the tenants were severely dealt with in
some one or more of these ways, and their spirit hav-
ing been crushed, the rest of that and the neigh-
bouring villages were easily coerced into submission.
It was only natural that they should submit to what
they considered to be the inevitable.

The reader knows that at that time Sir Charles-
Bayley was the Lieut-Governor of Bihar. His
policy was peculiar. He paid no heed to the petitions
of the tenants ; but on the representation of planters
he sent special Registrars to the factories to register
the enhancement contracts, so that the planters
might be saved the trouble or delay of going to the
Registration Office, for their registration. In this
way some seventeen special Registration Offices were

54 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

opened in Champaran and in 1912-14, some 30,710
enhancement contracts were registered. No more
effective method than this could have been devised
to impress upon the minds of the tenants that the
Government was behind the planters in these efforts
than this extraordinary procedure of opening special
offices for their convenience and it had the desired
effect of making them realize that if they created any
trouble, they would have the repetition of what they
had suffered in 1908-09 when large numbers
among them were shoved into jail and special puni-
tive police posted in their villages at their cost. They
realized that planter and Government were inter-
changeable terms and that they had no right to ex-
pect protection from the one against the other. Had
not Sir Charles Bayley made this perfectly clear by
giving a certificate of good character to the planters
about the end of 1912 ? To expect anything from him
would have been the height of folly and credulity of
which even the simple tenants of Champaran were
not capable. They submitted to the inevitable.

Whether the enhancements were forced on the
tenants or whether they agreed willingly to take
this burden on their own head to transmit it to their
children and children's children in lieu of an alleged
evanescent obligation which was fast disappearing
by reason of natural causes, one thing is certain, and
that is, that most of the tenants of the mokarri vil-
lages of the Turkaulia, Peepra, Motihari and Jalaha
factories did execute such contracts. In the Motihari
factory the rent was thus enhanced by Re. 1/10/3
per acre or by 60 p. c. ; in Peepra by Re. 0/15/- per
acre i. e. by 75 p. c. ; in Turkaulia, by Re. 0/15A per

SHARAHBESHI, TAWAN, HARJA 55

acre, i. e. by 50 p. c. ; and in Jalaha by Re. 1/3/- i. e.
by 55 p. c. of the existing rent.*

If the average of the entire district is taken, it
will be found that the enhancement of rent amount-
ed to 60 p. c. or\ the existing rental. In spite of the
fact that under the law a landlord is not entitled to
get an enhancement from his tenant by means of a
contract of more than 12i p. c. on the existing rental,
it is said that the tenants willingly agreed to the en-
hancement of about 60 p. c. The planters on their
side agreed to release the tenants from the obliga-
tion to grow indigo. We shall see later on how far
this promise was kept by them. Suffice it to say here
that when the Great War broke out and indigo culti-
vation once more became profitable the planters did
not desist from making the tenants grow it once
again. They released in this way about 22,000 acres
of land in which tenants had been growing indigo
under the Tinkathia system from indigo obligation,
Mr. Irwin admitted before the Agrarian Commission
that the increase in his income from enhancement
of rent in his moharri villages amounted to Rs.
50,000 per annum, the capitalized value of which at
20 years' purchase would be no less than Rs.
10,00,000. Mr. Irwin took this enhancement from
4.1 villages in which there were 41,005 tenants and
realized thus Rs. 50,000 per year for five years, i. e.
about Rs. 2,50,000 over and above their original rent.
Similarly, in Peepra factory enhancement was taken
from, 8,000 tenants. The rate of rent in the villages
of that factory was lower than in other places and

* Vide letter of Mr. W. S. Irwin dated 16-10-'17 which was
published in the Englishman of Calcutta and reproduced by
the Amrita Bazar Patrika dated 23-10-1&17

56 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

the enhancement here was up to 75 p. c. of the exist-
ing rental.

It used to be the opinion of Government officials
that the tenants of this factory were more contented
than those of other factories ; but the tenants of this
factory created more noise than those of other fac-
tories in this matter of enhancements. Many peti-
tions were sent by them to the Government that they
were being forced to agree to enhancements. One
of such petitions was submitted by one Lomrajsingh
to the Commissioner of the Tirhoot Division on the
12th December, 1914. This petition was signed by
700 tenants. As a result Mr. E. N. Norman, the
Manager of the Peepra factory, prosecuted Lomraj-
singh and 14 others for defamation. It was not a
civil suit for damages in a Civil Court. Very few of
the suits of planters go to the Civil Courts. They
find thier work easier and more convenient in Crimi-
nal Courts thanks to the system of combining
judicial and executive functions in the same officers.
Readers can well imagine their reason for this partia-
lity for criminal courts. The tenants did their best
to defend themselves, but Mr. Beal, the Magistrate,
convicted them and sentenced them to 6 months'
imprisonment and Rs. 24,000 fine. The tenants
appealed to the District Judge, Mr. A. E. Scroope,
and he set aside the order of the Magistrate and
acquitted the accused on the 7th September, 1915.
We quote below a portion of Mr. Scroope's judg-
ment which will show with what oppression the
enhancement contracts were forced down the throat
of the tenants :

" For the appellants the contention is that the whole-
sale execution of kdbulyats was brought about by nothing

SHARAHBESHI, TAWAN, HARJA 57

less than an organized system of oppression by the factory
servants, hangers on and umidwars who represent the
factory in the eyes of the ordinary ryot, and that the chief
means resorted to were (1) stoppage of cultivation till the
kabulyats were executed, (2) bringing in women to regis-
ter, whose husbands or male representatives had run away
to avoid registering, and (3) criminal cases. Again looking
at the probabilities there is no doubt that whilst the inten-
tions of a manager may be one thing, the acts of the factory
servants may be, and often are, quite another. It was
undoubtedly to the interest of the factory to substitute
these new agreements for the obligation to grow indigo.
This being so, it is by no means improbable that the factory
servants would put pressure on the ryots to come in and
execute kabulyats . . . Anyhow taking the evidence as it
stands, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that stop-
page of cultivation was used by the factory as a means
of getting these kabulyats executed, and this certainly
justified a representation to the Commissioner, as it Is
hard to imagine a more unfair stimulus to execute a docu-
ment, and the adjectives used an para 3 of the petition
to the Commissioner are not unreasonable epithets to apply
to it... Then as regards the allegations about women, the
defence puts in kabulyats all of which, it is denied by the
prosecution, were filled up first in a man's name and
eventually registered by a woman . . . Certainly the factory's
action in these instances may have been perfectly bona fide
but the necessity has not been explained for this urgency
and for not waiting till the men had made their periodic
returns."

In the Turkaulia factory enhancement contracts
were taken from 9 to 10 thousand tenants. Some of
the tenants of that factory instituted 9 civil suits to set
aside their contracts. They were treated as test suits
by the factory and fought out with great care by it.
Mr. P. C. Manuk, a distinguished advocate of Patna
and for sometime the Government Advocate and a
Judge of the Patna High Court, was engaged by the
factory. The cases went on for a long time. ' The

58 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

tenants were of course incapable of coping with a
litigation of this protracted nature. The Munsiff in
the first Court decided the suits against the tenants,
but when the cases went in appeal, Mr. Sheepshanks,
the District Judge, held in his judgipent dated 15th
March, 1917, that in 5 out of the 9 test cases, en-
hancements were illegal as there was no obligation
on the tenants to grow indigo. Both parties appealed
to the High Court in the suits in which the decisions
of Mr. Sheepshanks went against them, and these
appeals were dismissed without trial on account of
the Champaran Agrarian Act having been passed in
the meantime. But the judgment of Mr. Sheep-
shanks shows this that it was not an easy matter
for the factories to prove the obligation on the part
of the tenants to grow indigo, and it is no exagge-
ration to say that no less than 60 p. c. of these con-
tracts for enhancement were illegal and void apart
from all considerations of coercion and undue in-
fluence.

What happened among the Jalaha factory
tenants is worth knowing, particularly because the
then proprietor and manager, Mr. J. V. Jameson, was
the representative of the Bihar planters in the Legis-
lative Council and in that capacity he said in the
Council that the Champaran Agrarian Committee did
not act impartially. Let us see how his factory had
behaved.

The factory people saw that there were legal
difficulties in the way of getting enhancement agree-
ments from tenants. They saw that if the conditions
laid down in the Act were not proved to exist, the
enhancement agreements were liable to be set aside
at the instance of the tenants. It has already been

SHARAHBESHI, TAWAN, HARJA 59

stated above that a tenant who has acquired right of
occupancy is not liable to have his rent enhanced
except under certain conditions and to a limited ex-
tent. But under the law there is no limit to the right
of parties to contract to pay any rent for a land
newly settled. The reason of the rule is perfectly
clear. If the tenant does not agree to pay the rent
demanded by the landlord, the former cannot force
the latter to settle his land with him and must be
prepared to go without it ; but in case of tenants who
are already on the land, the landlord's rights are
limited and the tenant cannot be ejected except under
very strict conditions laid down in the Act. The
Jalaha factory devised a means to get rid of this right
of occupancy acquired by the tenants in course of
years and make fresh settlements with them which
would be free from the obligations laid down on land-
lords regarding occupancy tenants and which would
also not be subject to any limit in the matter of rent.
The factory would thus sail clear of all legal difficult-
ies. The only difficulty was how to deprive the
tenants of this right of occupancy. It is always open
to the tenant to surrender his right and his land to
the landlord and to free himself from the liability to
pay rent. This rule is laid down for the protection
of the tenant, as there may arise cases in which on
account of excessive rental or for any other reason it
may be necessary for the tenant to free himself from
the liability to pay rent. But the framers of the Ben-
gal Tenancy Act could never have imagined that this
provision intended for the protection of the tenants
could ever be used for the oppression of the tenants
of Champaran. The factory told the tenants to sur-
render their lands, and it is said by the factory that

60 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

the tenants willingly, and gladly surrendered their
valuable lands and their valuable rights in them, and
again took fresh settlements of these very lands in
the names of some relations of theirs on a greatly
enhanced rent.

Readers can easily imagine if the planters could
force the tenants to execute indigo contracts or to
agree to enhancements, there was no particular diffi-
culty in their making their tenants agree to such sur-
render of their rights. When a suit regarding such
surrenders came before the Civil Court, the Munsiff
decided that the surrender had been taken forcibly
and he held as follows in his judgment dated 30th
July, 1917 :

" Examining the istifanama (document of surrender)
I find it is on a printed form and it does not bear the sig-
nature of Jaldhari. No doubt it bears the thumb impression
of one person but it does not mention whose thumb im-
pression it is. Plaintiff had produced the entire istifa
book before me. I made the patwari count all the istifas
taken from that village in that year, and the witness after
counting it page by page stated that there were 125 tenants
in the village and the surrender was taken in that village
from not less than 95 tenants of the village. It is the
evidence of plaintiff's own witness No. 2 that tenants were
not allowed to cultivate their lands unless they paid an
enhanced rent at the rate of Re. 1-8-0 per bigha and that
Jaldhari surrendered the land as plaintiff had enhanced
his rent at that rate. If that was the reason for the sur-
render, I would naturally expect him not to take land from
the plaintiff any more. But he keeps on the same land
with this difference 'that its rent was nearly doubled after
this so-called surrender. According to this witness rents of
all tenants of the village were enhanced that year save that
of four tenants and that saving these four men all the
tenants had to surrender their lands.

" The witness could not tell me any reason for this
wild epidemic of surrender affecting all tenants of that

SHARAHBESHI, TAWAN, HARJA 61

village in that fateful year 1320 (1912-13 A. C.). Every one
knows that by surrender of a holding by a tenant is meant
total renouncement of possession on the said land of his.
But this is a peculiar kind of surrender in which the tenant
Jaldhari surrendered his holding on the 9th April, 1913,
and that the tenant and his co-tenant took settlement of
those very lands the very next clay i. e. on the 10th April.
The reason for going through this form of surrender is
found in the evidence of the Plaintiff's patwari. He says
that the rent of tenants was enhanced at the rate of
Re. 1-8-0 per bigha on the wish of tenants in lieu of not
growing indigo. So exemption from liability to grow
indigo was the real cause of enhancement of rent and the
surrender was not the cause for it, rather it was a con-
venient moans adopted to achieve that by getting over the
legal difficulties ... It is obviously plain that what happened
in 1320 was but a paper transaction. Exhibit I, the sham
istifa, was but an ignominious device employed to evade
the provision of section 29 (b) B. T. Act."

Truly there was this " wild epidemic " of sur-
render of valuable rights. The Jalaha factory in
this way got an enhancement of Re. 1-8-0 per bigha
i. e. about 55 p. c. on the existing rental. The en-
hanced rent was realized for three years i. e. from
1913 to 1915. Mr. Jameson thought, however, that
in spite of all these precautions it was safer to take
cash in one lump than this enhanced rental to be
realized from year to year. He evidently believes in
the wise English saying " A bird in hand is worth
two in the bush." There was no knowing when the
tenants would become refractory and carry the mat-
ter to Court. He therefore proposed to the tenants
that he would give up enhancements in lieu of lump
sums paid by them. He admitted before the Com-
mission that he had realized Rs. 26,000 from tenants
who had agreed to enhancements. He says that, this,
too, was paid by the tenants willingly. The tenants

62 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

had no money even to pay their rents as the crops
hafl partially failed for two seasons successively just
before these lump sums were realized. But in spite
of that the very tenants who were unable to pay
their rents not only gladly agreed to pay this addi-
tional Rs. 26,000 but paid rupees eight to ten
thousands in cash, and executed hand notes for the
balance.

This sum had been realized from the mokarri
villages only. Over and above this, like other facto-
ries, the Jalaha factory also realized lump sum dama-
ges from other temporarily leased villages, and the
amount thus realized would not be less than this sum
of Rs. 26,000. Thus the tenants of this small factory
were mulcted in the shape of consideration for re-
lease from enhancements and tawan to the extent
of Rs. 52,000 between the years 1912 and 1915. We
shall refer again to Mr. Jameson's dealings with his
tenants and leave him here for the present for fear
of digression.

The Jalaha factory adopted this method of cir-
cumventing the law. Other factories adopted other
methods. In one factory on account of the cessation
of indigo cultivation, its own land could not be culti-
vated to any profit. The factory was anxious to
settle it with tenants. It settled small bits of this
land with tenants. The rent payable for these bits,
however, was not the rent properly and reasonably
payable for them but to that was added whatever the
factory considered itself entitled to get from the
tenant on account of enhancement. The result was
that the provision of the Bengal Tenancy Act re-
stricting enhancement was thus successfully evaded

SHARAHBESHI, TAWAN, HARJA 63

and the rent was enhanced. This system of settle-
ment came locally to be known as hunda. To make
the position clear, let us take an example. The bit
of land newly settled was very small. It is doubtful
if any tenant got as much as one bigha of land thus
newly settled. The rent payable for this additional
newly settled land was calculated as follows. We
have already seen that if a tenant had 20 bighas of
land, he was obliged to grow indigo on 3 bighas. If
for release from indigo cultivation he had to pay
Rs. 1-8-0 per bigha as enhancement in his rent, he
would have to agree to an enhancement of Rs. 30
per year. Now with this tenant \ bigha of additional
land was settled, the rent properly payable for which
was say Rs. 5 per year. The rent, however, fixed
under the new hunda settlement for this J bigha was
not Rs. 5 but Rs. 5 plus Rs. 30 which, if he had
agreed to enhancement, he would have to pay. In
other words, the rent for that bit of bigha was
Rs. 35 or at Rs. 70 per bigha. Calculated in this way
the rent payable per bigha in some cases came to as
much as Rs. 91-7-3 per bigha. In one case it was
found that the tenants' rent for his holding of 27
bighas was Rs. 59-13-6 while the rent payable for the
same quantitj r of Factory's Zerait (own land), if set-
tled, came to Rs. 659-7-0 ; in other words where the
average rent was Rs. 2-3-6 per bigha, that for Zerait
lands came to Rs. 24-6-0, that is, nearly twelve times
the prevalent rent. It should be remembered that
there was no difference in the quality of the land of
the tenants' holding and the factory Zerait. In some
places this difference in rent was seen in respect of
different portions of the same plot. The reason is
clear. The rent was not for the land actually settled.

64 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

It was the enhancement calculated on the basis of
the tenants' tinkathia liability. I have heard that
in some places land which remained under water all
the year round and in which no crop could ever be
raised was settled in this way at high rent. In other
cases land which existed only in the imagination of
the settler was settled. There was no land in exist-
ence which could answer the descriptions given in
the settlement lease. The factory was concerned
with realizing the enhanced rent. The tenants also
knew that they had to pay the enhancement. What
did it matter whether it was realized as enhancement
pure and simple, or in an indirect manner ? When
the revision of Survey and Settlement took place the
Settlement Officers recorded these newly settled
lands separately as constituting separate holdings in
themselves the result of which was that if a tenant
wanted to surrender them, he could do so. The fac-
tory was of course anxious that this newly settled
land and its rent should be amalgamated with the
tenants' old holding and its rent. But fortunately
for the tenants 'this was frustrated and the
tenants were saved the enhancement. When
Mahatma Gandhi came to Champaran, all these
tenants in one voice declared their intention to sur-
render these hunda lands. The factory manager
alleged that the hunda land was of superior quality,
that the tenants had pressed him very much to settle
it with them, and that if the tenants surrendered it,
he would be able to derive much more profit from the
land than he was getting as rent from the tenants.
When the tenants heard this they all expressed their
willingness to surrender their lands at once, and
Mahatma Gandhi putting reliance on the words of

SHARAHBESHI, TAWAN, HARJA 65

the manager took down the names of the tenants who
wanted to surrender the hunda land and forwarded
them to the manager. But the very same manager
who had boasted that the factory had settled these
lands at a loss with the tenants instituted suits for
rents from the tenants for these very lands. With all
this staring in their face there are people who are
never tired of saying that the planters are in Cham-
paran for the good of the tenants there, and what-
ever agitation or stir there arises among the tenants
is artificial and the creation of outsiders without any
substance or justification and that the tenants are
quite happy under the planters. By these and such
other methods the planters managed to shift the loss
of indigo on to the shoulders of tenants. But this
enhancement was taken in villages which were
moharri or in perpetual lease with planters, any in-
crease in the income of which would in perpetuity
accrue to the perpetual lessee. In temporarily leased
villages, if the rent was enhanced, it would be open
to the superior landlord, the Bettiah Raj, either to
take these villages back or to enhance the rent paya-
ble by the lessee on the expiry of the term of the
lease. In such villages therefore the planters rea-
lized lump sums of money from the tenants.

There are many points worth considering in this
connection. The planters 1 allegation was that they
were entitled to compel tenants to grow indigo in 3
kaihas per trigha of their holdings. It was a sort of
personal obligation on the tenants an obligation
of the same nature as that to pay rent. Under the
law this obligation could attach only to such holdings
as were burdened with it from their very commence-
ment. Obviously it could not attach to holdings

66 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

which were not so burdened at their commencement.
If this obligation did not attach to the holding from
its very inception, the provision in law permitting
unlimited enhancement would not apply, and a con-
tract for enhancement of rent by more than 2 annas
in the rupee would be legally void. In villages
where the planters were the perpetual lessees their
rights were practically the same as those of land-
lords ; but this mokarri or perpetual right originated
only in 1888, and as most of the holdings of tenants
were in existence from before 1888, when the plant-
ers' right originated, the alleged obligation to grow
indigo could not have attached to them, and there-
fore unlimited enhancements, would be illegal and
void. But even if on account of their permanent
right in the mokarri villages, it be admitted that the
planters had some sort of a right, it is impossible to
understand how they could have any such right in
temporarily leased villages in which their own rights
were temporary and from which they were them-
selves liable to be ejected. The Bettiah Raj which
was the permanent and superior landlord of the vil-
lages never claimed such rights. The planters claim-
ed rights against tenants which they themselves did
not possess. One can understand a tenant contract-
ing to grow indigo for a number of years and refus-
ing to fulfil his promise and being made liable in
damages for his breach. The factory would in such
a case be entitled to realize damages from him ; and
if it chose to release him from this obligation, it
might claim some compensation for it also. But this
can be legal only if the contract between the factory
and the tenant is legally valid and duly executed
without any undue influence, force, coercion or fraud

SHARAHBESHI, TAWAN, HARJA 67

and after fully understanding the effect thereof. The
tenants of Champaran had always asserted that the
indigo contracts were forcibly taken from them and
if they were left to themselves they would not grow
indigo for one single day ; not only that, the terms
and conditions of these contracts used to be such
that no man in his senses would ever accept them as
a free agent. Besides many of the factories had not
even these contracts in their favour, and in many
the terms of the contracts had long expired. But
the planters realized cash payments as taw an or
damages from all of them.

Like the rate of enhancement the rate of tawan
varied in different factories. It was calculated in this
way. If a tenant was obliged to grow indigo in 3
bighas, it was said that his indigo lagan was 3 bighas.
The taivan realized was at the rate of Rs. 50 to Rs. 60
and in some cases even Rs. 100 per bigha of the lagan.
The average for the whole district would be between
Rs. 50 and Rs. 60 per acre. In this way the planters
are said to have released 18,000 acres after realizing
tawan at the rate of Rs. 50 to Rs. 60 per acre. In
other words they realized nine to ten lacs in the
shape of tawan. The tenants could not of cpurse pay
all this in cash. They paid as much as they could
in cash, for the rest their cattle were distrained and
other properties taken in lieu of cash. Many execut-
ed hand notes. The notes which were executed, in
many cases, did not show that the consideration for
them was not cash nor did they show that they were
in lieu of damages for indigo. In some cases false
consideration was mentioned in the bonds, e. g., that
the money was borrowed by the tenant for necessary
household expenses. Those who had to pay large

68 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

sums were required to execute not hand notes but
registered bonds and in some of them absolutely false
necessity for the " loan " was shown, such as, the
marriage of a girl or the funeral expenses of an
elderly member of the family. The tenants had also
to pay interest on the hand notes and the bonds. Mr.
Irwin, the manager of the Motihari factory, had ad-
mitted that he had realized Rs. 3,20,000 from his
tenants as tawan, and his rate was Rs. 75 per bigha.
It has already been stated that Mr. Jameson even in
mokarri villages realized Rs. 26,000 as tawan after
having realized enhancement for some years. In his
thika (temporarily leased) villages he realized tawan
at Rs. 55 per bigha. The indigo lagan of his factory
was 475 bighas and he thus realized Rs. 26,125 as
tawan, out of which he got about one third in cash
and for the balance he took hand notes and bonds.
This he did in Jalaha factory. Before coming to
Jalaha he was a partner and manager of another
factory called Bhelwa Factory. All the villages in
possession of that factory had been taken on tempo-
rary leases only shortly before the realization of
tawan commenced. The factory could not by any
means force any obligation on the tenants to grow
indigo. Mr. Jameson also admitted in his evidence
that the indigo obligation could not be proved against
the tenants. He had realized Rs. 75 or Rs. 80 per
bigha all the same, from the tenants of this factory
also. The indigo lagan of that factory was 1,600
bighas and he must have realized Rs. 1,20,000 to
Rs. 1,28,000. It should also be noted that after rea-
lizing this large sum as tawan he sold the factory with
the result that when in accordance with the recom-
mendations of the Champaran Agrarian Committee

GOVERNMENT MEASURES 69

the Government ordered a refund by the factories
of one fourth of the tawan realized by them, the
tenants of the factory did not get any refund, as Mr.
Jameson and his partner had departed after realizing
the taivan, and it was considered unjust by the Gov-
ernment to force the new proprietors to make a
refund of what they had not realized.

7
GOVERNMENT MEASURES

It has already been mentioned that in 1912-13
many petitions were submitted by the tenants against
the planters. It has also been said how in spite of
these petitions Sir Charles Bayley towards the end
of 1912 congratulated the planters at Sonepur on the
satisfactory relations then subsisting between them
and their tenants. But this certificate could not long
suppress the truth. When Sir Charles Bayley visited
Champaran in the following February, the tenants
memorialized him again and we give below three of
such petitions.

I

" The humble petition of the undersigned tenants
of the village Gawandra, Tappa Harihara, Dist. Cham-
paran,

Most respectfully showeth :

" 1 . That the petitioners are tenants and kasht-

kars of the village Gawandra which is in lease to the

Gawandra Indigo factory.

" 2. That hitherto the petitioners were required

to cultivate Indigo for the factory at the rate of 3

kathas per big ha, of their holdings and although against

70 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

their wishes they had accustomed themselves to that
service, as any refusal on their part would put them
to serious trouble.

" 3. That now indigo manufacture has become
less lucrative and the factory has thought fit to dis-
continue cultivation of indigo and fras been trying to
realize a sum of Rs. 60 on the allegation that the
factory would relieve the petitioners from the burden
of cultivating indigo.

" 4. That indeed the cultivation of indigo is a
burden imposed on the tenants without any jusificaton
and the tenants are rightfully entitled to be relieved
of that burden and for the matter of that the factory
is not entitled to realize anything from the petitioners.

" 5. That in spite of there being no justification
the petitioners are being coerced to make payment of
the above sum and some of us have been compelled to
sign hand notes. The petitioners are terrified.

" 6. That the petitioners are quite unable to pro-
tect themselves in ordinary course and they feel
compelled to represent their grievances to Your
Honour in the earnest hope that Your Honour will
be graciously pleased to extend protection to your
petitioners.

" 7. That the petitioners are at Motihari and as-
pire for an opportunity to appear before Your Honour
and to represent their grievances which they are un-
able to do in writing."

II

" 1. We the tenants of Mouzas Phenhara, Parsrampur,
Rapawlia, Jamunia Nasiba, and Ibrahimpur Parsawni, Dist.
Champaran beg to offer our humble though hearty and loyal
welcome to Your Honour on the occasion of Your Honour's
graceful visit to the District of Champaran and we take it
as a forerunner of peace and contentment in the district.

"2. Our villages are in lease to the Parsawni Indigo
Concern and we have had miserable existence hitherto
owing to the high-handedness of the factory with which

GOVERNMENT MEASURES 71

our lots have been permanently blended. But we believe
and trust that our circumstances will henceforth be chang-
ed for better on account of Your Honour's happy visit to
our district.

" 3. The planters came to the district with a deter-
mination to manufacture indigo and our ancestors and our-
selves were made to offer ready-made 3 kathas per bigka,
every year of our kast lands for the cultivation of indigo
which being absolutely unjustifiable and unconscionable
was sought to be legalized by exactions of agreements
from the tenants known as sat fas and as slightest reluc-
tance on our part and on the part of our ancestors would
entail our total annihilation as it were, we persuaded our-
selves -to be agreeable to our lot to save our honour and
existence. But this was not all.

" 4. The three kathas nil-sattas were followed by a
demand of cart sattas from us and the unfortunate lot ac-
customed themselves to the necessary evils in the expecta-
tion of enjoying peace. But this was never to happen.

" 5. Unfortunately for ourselves the natural indigo
lost its value in the market and the factories, at least the
majority of them, have given up this idea of cultivating
indigo any further and our factory is one of them. But
the lull foreboded a destructive storm.

" G. The factory now demands and has been demand-
ing for the last few years an yearly damage of Rs. 16-8-0
or a consolidated damage of Rs. 100 per indigo bigka for
the apparent return of relieving us from the cultivation
of indigo which means an increase of our rents by Rs. 2-44)
per bigha and in the other case our total bankruptcy*

" 7. That the demand is more than can be assimilated
and we are therefore unable and naturally unwilling and
reluctant to consent to the payment of the same. But with-
out any consideration of our poor and destitute condition,
the factory insists upon the payment of the same by caus-
ing oppression of which there are many varieties.

" False cases have been and are being instituted against
us, our cattle are taken from our cowsheds to the factory
ground to be released only after payment of heavy fines,
undue advantages are being taken of petty differences

72 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

among the ryots themselves, punitive police and police
guards were once requisitioned on false allegation of
oppression by the ryots to the factory which is simply ab-
surd and impossible ; now Dhangars who are known as
factory's regiments, would be let on us and many other

means would be devised to bring the ryots round.

"8. We petitioned the District Officer representing our
grievances and praying for protection. But he declined
to take steps on such petition and ordered us to file regular
complaints against the factory. We then petitioned to the
Comissioner of the division stating our inability to prose-
cute the powerful factory and praying for our protection.
The Commissioner was pleased to order " Obviously if the
tenants will not lay definite complaints nothing can be done,
but it appears that the affairs in this dehat require to be
watched."

" 9. The Divisional Commissioner in the last portion
of his order* has shown some sympathy with us and has
been pleased to remark that our affairs required to be
watched, but that does not improve our conditions mate-
rially. The District Officer is pleased to advise our formally
prosecuting the factory but for that we are unable and
incompetent. Sometimes complainants against the factory
have been prosecuted for false complaints without the same
being properly considered with the result that we, ryots
are unfairly silenced and compelled to pocket all sorts of
injuries and oppressions or to comply with the demands
of the factory so hard, unjustifiable and ruinous though
they are.

" 10. Your Honour's personal presence among us en-
courages us for presentation of grievances which we hereby
do, trusting most sincerely that our evil days will end to-
da} r and under the protection of Your Honour's benign Gov-
ernment we will be allowed to enjoy peace of mind in our
humble hearth, if Your Honour be graciously pleased to
order the District Officer to issue instructions to the factory
to give up its efforts to realize the illegal demand mention-
ed above ; for which we shall, as in duty bound, ever pray
for Your Honour's long life and prosperity."

GOVERNMENT MEASURES 73

III

" We the tenants of Mouza Madhubani, thana Dhaka.
Dist. Champaran, beg to offer our humble but hearty and
cordial welcome to Your Honour on the occasion of Your
Honour's visit to this district.

" We are, Your Honour, yoked to the Nirpur factory
which has been demanding an increase of our rent for
our holding on the allegation that we will be relieved of
the burden of cultivating indigo for the said factory. The
cultivation of indigo is indeed a burden and the sooner we
are relieved of it, the better in the name of British Justice.
But the demand for any addition to our rental is to drive
us to the fire from the frying pan and we are naturally
reluctant to comply with the new demand of the factory.

" But however justified our reluctance might be the
factory is not prepared to put up with it and various
sorts of threats are being held out to us by the ami as and
the creatures of the factory and our very existence is in
danger and to safeguard ourselves we filed a petition be-
fore the District Officer stating the various threats held
out to us as we necessarily thought ourselves to be quite
unable to stand the wrath of the factory which is so
fearful. The result of our petition to the District Magis-
trate has been that cases under section 500 I.P.C. have
been started and as Your Honour might well conceive, we
are quite unable to substantiate the allegation in the peti-
tion to the District Officer before the trying Magistrate in
opposition to such a strong body as the factory ; although
our allegations are true to the letter and in one set of
cases some of us have been convicted and other sets are
still pending judgment and trial ; but the result of these
cases, as well, are a foregone conclusion under the cir-
cumstances we are surrounded by.

"It is argued that tenants are voluntarily entering into
agreements for the increase of their rents, but slightly in-
dependent and unbiased judgment will establish that any
such agreement on the part of the ryots cannot but be
the offspring of force and coercion and the cultivation of
indigo was nothing better.

74 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

"We are informed that a special Registering office has

been opened and we apprehend that our annihilation is

near at hand as the establishment of such an office will

expedite greatly the registration and completion of that

undesirable agreement for the increase of the ryot's rents."

It is clear from these petitions ttyat the complaint

of the tenants was that force and coercion were used

in getting enhancement contracts from them. We do

not know what action was taken on these petitions.

In answer to a question by the Hon'ble Babu Brajki-

shoreprasad in the Legislative Council, the Hon'ble

Mr. MacPherson said as follows :

" Government has received from time to time petitions
purpprting to be signed by the ryots of Champaran and
complaining of the relations existing between them and
the landlords. The petitions have been referred to the
local officers for inquiry but reports have not been received
in all cases. In certain cases, the local officers have taken
steps to redress the grievances which have been proved
to be well founded. The complete report of the local offi-
cers is still awaited and in view of the imminence of the
revision of settlement operation in the district which will
bring to light all the facts of the situation, Government
do not consider that any Committee of inquiry is now
necessary or expedient."

About this time these enhancement contracts
were being executed and tawan was being realized.
The Press was also commenting on this. On the
6th July 1913 the Bikaree wrote a strong article *

* " The failure of natural indigo to successfully compete
with the artificial dye has seriously affected the financial posi-
tion of the planting community in the Tirhut division of our
province and the loss thus entailed on them has affected to a
large extent their relation with the tenants. We have referred
to the evils of the tinkalhia system, and how their attempt
to realize tawan (compensation) or sharahbeshi (enhancement
of rent) for releasing the tenants from their obligation to grow
indigo on three bathas out of every bigha of their holdings has

GOVERNMENT MEASURES 75

on the subject. But in spite of all this Lord Hardinge
was also made to grant a certificate to the planters.

created a situation which deserves the serious attention of the
Local Government. Villages in which indigo is or was grown
are held either in thica or mokarri. In the former, cash com-
pensation is being demanded which ranges from Rs, 60 to
Rs. JOO per Inftigo bigha; in the latter, enhancement of rent,
as would permanently raise the income. Instances have
come to light in which coercion is employed to make the
tenants agree either to the enhancement of the rent or pay
the cash compensation. Some of those who do not agree are
harassed in various ways, till they agree to the terms imposed
by the Saheb. Numerous petitions, we understand, were filed
before the District Magistrate, the burden of the song in each
case being ' that the tenants were not lodging formal complaints
against the factories but only laying their petitions for their
protection so that, they might be of use in future and in the
hope that the Magistrate would use his influence with the
planters.'

"And be it said to the credit of the present District Magis-
trate of Champaran that he has on several occasions while
sending copies of such petitions to the factory managers for
information, made it perfectly clear that no ryot can be com-
pelled to pay compensation in lieu of indigo against hi? will,
that no sort of pressure can be used to compel him. He has
further added that only if the ryot has executed an Indigo
sattah he is bound to grow indigo, and if he refuses or neglects
to do so, damages can be realized by civil suit. But the pay-
ment of compensation in lieu of indigo is absolutely at the
option of the ryot. Such a clear and unambiguous expression
of the views which the District Magistrate entertains on the
question of compensation has been a source of relief to the
poor tenants. It is, however, a well-known fact that the factory
managers and the European Mkadnrs had been practising a
sort of benevolent despotism. But it was despotism after alL
The principal source of profit having almost disappeared, there
has been more of despotism than of benevolence and it behoves
the Government to come to the relief of the poor cultivators,
for these latter in their struggle with the powerful organization

76 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

When Lord Hardinge visited Patna towards the end
of 1913 to lay the foundation stone of the Patna High

of the planters and thikadars, a very influential body cer-
tainly, have to face fearful odds. Sometimes petitions are
submitted to the District Magistrate on which it is not possible
for him to take any action. For instance, in o$ie petition, the
magistrate passed the following order : ' The petition does not
show to what public officer it is addressed. If it is addressed
to the District Magistrate, it is for the petitioners to state what
action they desire the District Magistrate to take and under
what law. If it is intended for the Collector, I do not in the
least understand what power of interference the Collector has.
The petition is therefore returned to the mukhtear so that he
may make the petition clear.' We can very well understand
the difficulties of the executive head of the District, but there
are various ways in which he might take action and we might
be permitted to humbly suggest to him that as the head of the
police, he might see that they are less subservient to the wishes
of the factory managers. Police guards are placed in villages
where inhabitants are said to have gone out of the hand of
the factory, and the oppressions the members of this force are
said to practice might well be put a stop to, and in all cases
hi which the District Magistrate is satisfied that wrong is being
clone, although he might not be able to employ the provisions
of any law to punish the wrong doers, he might use moral
suasion, and we are sure this will have the desired effect. Only
very recently a case under section 107 Cr. P. C. was tried by
the Deputy Magistrate of Motihari exercising first class powers,
in which 9 persons were accused of interfering with the culti-
vation of gairmazua land belonging to the Barah factory
and its outwork Gawandra factory threatening to commit vio-
lence on the servants and those of their tenants who have paid
indigo compensation known as tawan. The case for the de-
fence was that the said factories were demanding tawan from
the accused and other people and are coercing them to pay by
various acts of oppression and that this case has been instituted
by the police at their instigation with a view to put pressure
on them so that they may be compelled to pay it, and there is
no apprehension of a breach of the peace on their part. Now

GOVERNMENT MEASURES 77

Court, the planters presented an address of welcome
to him in reply to which he was made to say : "Today,

the Magistrate who tried the case in the course of his judgment
says : ' I have made a local inspection of the land and compared
the cadastral Survey No. 1310 Mahal and Mouzah Gawandra
Tola Sherpore, and it is entered in the Ehatian as 6'afr-
Maefua Rasta (Road) Chah Pokhta ek ba Kalza Malik and it
Is also shown in the cadastral map as a road. I have seen
several other lands. Plot No. 1681 Mahal and Mouza Gwandra,
Tola Ramdiha and 1275 which the factories have dug up in
order to cultivate them, and these lands are also shown in the
cadastral survey khatian and map as road. It will therefore
be seen that what the factories are anxious to cultivate are
gaimiazrua, roads that is, public roads which have been used
by the people as such for many years, perhaps many decades
and that it has now suddenly entered their heads to dig up and
cultivate them and thus stop the right of way of other people.
I may say at once that the factory is not entitled to dig up,
cultivate and grow crops on these roads and thus stop the traffic
altogether. The chief people that are affected by this are the
accused and others that have not paid the compensation or
tawan and who have got their houses, goushalas, khalihan8,
nads etc., near them. What the factories have done is abso-
lutely a wrongful act which is likely to provoke a breach of
the peace and for which they want others to be bound down.
The accused, in my opinion, were perfectly justified in resist-
ing in the way they are alleged to have done, the cultivation
of these roads by which the right of way would be stopped. I
can understand no other motive on the part of the factory of
selecting these roads to be cultivated first before other fallow
lands (which are man}0 than the intention of making the
existence of these accused and others that have not agreed to
pay Indigo tawan intolerable in the village. It is a piece of
extreme high-handedness on the part of the factories, to say
the least of it.' In the end the Magistrate came to the conclu-
sion, ' that the factory people have dug up the roads to grow
crops thereon with a view to stop the way of the accused and
others who have not paid the tawan in order to coerce them
to submit to the factory terms and this is in my opinion at

78 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

as far as I know, the relations between the Bihar
planters and their ryots are cordial and satisfactory
in the North Bihar Districts."

In 1914 the Bihar Provincial Conference met at
Bankipur on the 10th April. Bsbu Brajkishore-
prasad presided over it and in his Presidential
Address he said about Champaran as follows :

" The highest officials in the land have utilized their
replies to the addresses of welcome from the planting com-
munity to bestow upon them glowing panegyrics on the
valuable services they are said to have rendered to Tirhut.
I do not grudge the planters these eulogiums and I wish
them joy. But I do maintain that there is another side of
the shield and whatever good the planters might have
done, their dealings with ryots have brought about a
serious agrarian situation and that they have resulted in
considerable suffering and misery to the poor defenceless
villagers. It is well known that the ryots' allegations
against the planters which have been held by Courts to be

once unjust and unlawful and that it is they who who are
provoking a breach of the peace. It is the factory servants
who are doing a wrongful act and who ought to be bound down
and not the accused. If any breach of the peace occurs I would
hold them responsible and not the accused. I accordingly dis-
charge the accused under section 119 Cr. P. C. ' Any one who
has any experience of Zamindari work will agree with us when
we say that it is an ordinary practice to coerce the refractory
tenants in this fashion. As the trying Magistrate found there
was no other object in selecting the roads to be dug up for
cultivation, roads which have been used as such for years,
which were shown as roads in survey maps, except that of
coercion, specially when it is pointed out that there are other
fallow lands which were not sought to be cultivated. And the
first effort to cultivate was made in connection with the roads
where cultivation would seriously affect the accused and
others who had not paid the compensation or tawan. Com-
ment is superfluous and would be nothing better than an act
of supererogation."

GOVERNMENT MEASURES 79

generally well founded are to the effect that they are found
to execute illegal sattas by methods of coercion, including
the institution of vexatious cases, that fines and cesses are
unlawfully realized from them and that they are ill-
treated if they attempt in the least to refuse compliance
with the orders of the planters. So far as the execution
of the sattas is concerned, it is strange that registration
oifices are opened at factories to suit the convenience of
'the planters. These allegations are serious enough in all
conscience to merit a thorough and sifting inquiry in the
interest not only of the ryots but the planters as well ....
In my opinion the Government will be well advised if, far
from blinking so serious a problem, they tackle it in the
only way possible, namely, by appointing a small mixed
Committee of qualified officials and non-officials to
thoroughly investigate the matter by means of an open
enquiry and by acting upon its recommendations. Other-
wise, I may warn the Government that there are rocks
ahead and that they had better look out."

The Provincial Conference passed a resolution
recommending to the Government the appointment
of an enquiry Committee. No heed was of course
paid to this. The Amrita Bazaar Paprika and the
Bharatamttm of Calcutta, the Pratap of Cawnpore and
the Abhyudaya, of Allahabad, went on writing about
Champaran from time to time and Babu Brajkishore-
prasad by his questions in the Council continued
drawing the attention of the Government to these
articles and warning the Government about the dan-
ger of overlooking the real causes of discontent in
Champaran. On the 3rd April, 1915, the Provincial
Conference met at Chapra. Babu Nandkishorelal
presided, and commenting on the Champaran situa-
tion, he said as follows :

" I gather that in the twelve months that have elapsed
since we met last, all has not been well with the relations

80 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

between the two communities (planters and ryots). The
ryots have presented petitions to the Government making
very serious allegations against some of the managers of
the Indigo concerns and the official reply in the Council
was that the Government had ' forwarded them in original
through the proper official channel for report'. This is
gratifying; but one would like to know soon the result of
the inquiries, or are they also to share the fate of Mr.
Gourlay's Report submitted in connection with the Cham :
paran riot of 1908 and which is popularly believed and
perhaps not unjustifiably to be so damaging to the plant-
ers that the Government has not dared to publish it in spite
of repeated demands in the Imperial and Provincial Coun-
cils for its publication."

He, too, like Babu Brajkishoreprasad suggest-
ed to the Government the appointment of an enquiry
Committee. In this conference also a resolution re-
commending such a Committee was again passed,
and it is worth noting that Pandit Rajkumar Shukla
about whom we shall have to say a great deal later
on, accompanied by many others attended this Con-
ference as a representative of the tenants and re-
lated the story of their grievances before the Confer-
ence. The Legislative Council met in that very month
and Babu Brajkishoreprasad proposed the following
resolution at the meeting :

" That this Council recommends to the Lieut.-Governor
in Council that a Committee of qualified officials and non-
officials be appointed to make an immediate and searching
inquiry into the case of the strained relations between the
planters and the ryots in the District of Champaran and
to suggest remedies therefor."

It need hardly be stated that the Government
of Sir Charles Bayley did not accept this resolution.
In reply it was said that the Government from time
to time had had inquiries made by local officers and

GOVERNMENT MEASURES 81

at the time the survey and settlement of the District
was going on, and whatever grievances the tenants
might have would be placed before the Settlement
Officer whose report would doubtless be authorita-
tive. The representative of the planters in ihe
Council and the Secretary of the Planters' Associa-
tion Mr. Pilgate quoted the encomiums bestowed on
them by Lord Hardinge and said that the relation
between the planters and the tenants was quite
satisfactory and no inquiry was needed. Babu Braj-
kishoreprasad quoted the following from the Indian
Planters' Gazette, the organ of the planters, in
reply :

" It seems certain that bad feeling has been brewing
for some time between certain of the European Zamindaries
at Champaran and their tenantry and that very shortly
after he was appointed District Officer, Mr. Heycock found
it necessary to circulate a notice amongst ryots with a view
to reassure them."

No one can blame Mr. Filgate for the defence he
put forward on behalf of those whose representative
he was in the Council ; but it must be admitted with
regret that other non-official members also in a way
opposed this resolution. Some of the non-official
members who knew nothing about Champaran had
the temerity to advise Babu Brajkishoreprasad to
withdraw the resolution. But the latter who knew
a great deal about Champaran did not of course
listen to this advice. He only said in reply that if
the Government gave a pledge to publish the report
of the enquiry which was then alleged to be made
by the Settlement Officers, he might withdraw his
resolution. But Sir Charles Bayley's Government
did not agree even to this. It was obvious that the

82 SATYAGRAHA IN-CHAMPARAN

report might go against the planters and the certi-
ficate granted by Sir Charles might be proved false
by his own officers. If the Government had accepted
Babu Brajkishoreprasad's suggestion for the ap-
poiYitment of an Enquiry Committee in 1913, the
tawan would not have been realized, and both the
tenants and the Bettiah Raj would have been saved
this heavy fine. The Government, too, would not
have had to eat the humble pie and Mahatma Gandhi
would not have had to take the trouble he had to.
But whatever God docs, He does for the best. Pos-
sibly the enquiry and the report of the Committee,
if then appointed, would not have been as thorough
as they were under the Champaran Agrarian Com-
mittee of 1917, and the tenants would not have been
freed from the burden of tinhathia. India, too,
would have been deprived of the first fruit of Satya-
graha, and the residents of Bihar could not have
seen the burning example of the sacrifice of Mahatma
Gandhi ior the good of the tenantry of Champaran.

ABWAB

It has been, said above that the soil of north-
western Champaran is not fit for indigo cultivation
which was never carried on in a regular way in that
part ; but it should not be supposed that Europeans
did not establish factories there. They used to take
leases of villages from the Bettiah and Ramanagar
Estates and used to make their living out of them.
It docs not follow from this that their tenants were
happy and contented. They had devised other means
of making money. We have already seen how in
1907 the Sathi factory had found a substitute for
indigo in painkharcha or water tax. Other factories
also, some of which did not have indigo cultivation
and some that had it, used to realize various kinds
of abwab or illegal cesses. Painkharcha was one
such abwab. It was said by factory owners that
Indian Zamindars had from time immemorial realized
various kinds of abwabs and that the planters had
only followed their example. They also alleged that
the tenants willingly paid these illegal cesses which
were equal in amount to the legal rent payable by
them. With regard to the villages of the Ramanagar
Raj, it is said that the rent on which they had been
leased to the planters includes abwab. Ever since
the Permanent Settlement was made in 1793, abwabs
have been declared illegal and they have been prohi-
bited by the Government. The Bengal Tenancy Act
also prohibits the realization of abwab and prescribes
a penalty against a landlord who realizes it to the

83

84 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

extent of double the amount realized to be paid to
the tenant.

Abwabs are of many kinds. Their names and
mode of realization would excite laughter, if one
forgot that they were the cause of untold misery to
the tenant. Some of these are described below, as
their mere names may not be intelligible.

(1) Painkharcha means a tax or rate paid
for water supplied by means of a canal for irrigation.
If there were really pains in existence, and the
tenants benefited by them by irrigating their lands
with the canal water no one would object to this rate
being realized. The tenants not only in Bihar but
in other provinces also pay canal rates to the Gov-
ernment for irrigating their lands with water from
Government canals ; and no one raises any objection
to such rates. But in Champaran this painkharcha
was an abwab. The Sathi factory used to realize it
without making any satisfactory arrangement for the
supply of water. In other factories also it used to be
similarly realized without any justification. In all
these places the rate was Rs. 3 per bigha. There is
a factory called Chautarwa in northwest Champaran.
There are many " Dhangar " * tenants. Land is not
settled there by measurement. The rent is not paid
at so much per acre but so much per plough, that
is, so much for as much land as can be cultivated
with one plough. The system is known as halband.
The Dhangar tenants used to pay Rs. 7-8-0 per plough
as rent and an equal amount was realized as
painkharcha from them. There is another factory

" Dhangars " are a class of aborigines imported from
Chota Nagpur and settled in Champaran.

ABWAB 85

called Madhubani which is owned by the same pro-
prietor as Chautarwa. There is an embankment
called the Piprasi Embankment. It is alleged by the
factory that this embankment was made at the cost
of the factory, ajid it is also maintained by it, and it
is accordingly entitled to realize painkharcha, or
water-rate from the tenants. No one knows what its
construction cost the factory, but its upkeep does
not cost more than Rs. 300 per year. The income
of the factory from painkharcha, and an embankment
cess was as much as Rs. 9,000 per year. The tenants
say that the embankment was made by the Dhangars
without their charging any wages from the factory !
Similarly the Belwa and Naraipur factories used to
realize painkharcha, and their allegation too, was
that they had constructed canals for the benefit of
tenants. The settlement officers of the Government
could not discover these canals, and even where they
were found, only a small portion of the lands on
which painkharcha, was levied was benefited by
them. The Bhusurari factory frankly confessed that
it had no canals but it realized the painkharcha all
the same !

Let us have the story of another factory. Its
name is Sikta. The proprietor was one Mr. Thorpe.
He saw that painkharcha might be declared an
abwab and its realization stopped. He thought it
safer and wiser to realize a lump sum instead. He
accordingly tried to realize 6 years' painkharcha in
one sum and succeeded in realizing it, too, from some
of the tenants, but many did not pay. In the mean-
time the settlement officers arrived and the whole
show was over. A large sum was due from this very
Mr. Thorpe on account of rent to the Bettiah Raj,

86 SA.TYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

and the Court of Wards remitted Rs. 80,000 ai one
stroke for his, it would seem, invaluable services !

(2-4) Salami, Tinhathia and Lagan, are various names
for Rs. 3 per bigha that used to be realized over and
above the rent. That it should be called tinkathia
is very significant. It does not prove that indigo
used to be grown in northwestern Champaran also
under the tinkathia system. But tenants felt that
as in eastern and southern Champaran their com-
patriots had to bear the burden of indigo, so also
should they bear the burden of this abwab. This is
well illustrated in Bhusurari factory. The factory-
started by realizing 3 maunds of paddy per bigha
which it later on commuted into a cash payment of
Rs. 3 per bigha. In the Murla and Hardia factories
also this abwab was realized in this way. The
tenants naturally thought that whether it was for
indigo or as abwab, they had to pay to the European
Planter, and it made no difference to them by what
name others called it whether painkharcha, tin-
kathia, lagan or salami.

(5) Bandhbehri is an abwab like painkhar-
cha ; its rate is one anna per rupee of the rent.

(6) Bethmafi We have already mentioned
that in Chautarwa factory Rs. 7-8-0 used to be the
rent and Rs. 7-8-0 abwab per plough. Bethmafi
also used to be realized by that factory. The factory
had some lands which used to be cultivated with the
help of the ploughs of the tenants. It is said that
it was very irksome to the tenants to supply their
ploughs to the factory and they gladly commuted this
obligation into money payment at the rate of Rs. 3
per plough. This was called bethmafi, i.e., an abwab
paid in lieu of beth. The poor tenants of that factory

ABWAB 87

had thus to pay over and above their legal rent of
Rs. 7-8-0 per plough, an additional Rs. 7-8-0 as
painkharcha and Rs. 3 as bethmafi per plough.

(7) Bapahi-Putahi When a tenant dies his
son or heir has t to pay a sort of death duty which
is known by this name. It should be noted, how-
ever, that under the Bengal Tenancy Act the right
of an occupancy tenant is heritable without any such
payment but the planters would not allow the heir
his legal right without this payment.

(8) Marwach is a tax of Re. 1-4-0 realized at
the time of the marriage of a tenant's child.

(9) Sagaura was a tax of Rs. 5 realized at
the time of a remarriage of a widow.

(10) Kolhu-awan was a tax of Re. 1 realized
for every oil or sugarcane mill.

(11) Chulhi-awan In some places turmeric is
cultivated in large quantities and before being placed
in the market, it has to be boiled. This was a tax
of Re. 1 for every oven kept for boiling turmeric.

(12) Batchhapi was a tax realized from sellers
of oil and milk> and the rate was Re. 1 for every pail
kept by the seller.

(13) Bechai used to be realized from those
who sold grain and the rate was Re. 1 or Rs. 2 per
year.

(14) Phaguahi, (15) Dasahari (16) Chaitnawami,
(17) Dawatpuja used to be kinds of cesses realized
by the planters or their employees from the tenants
on the occasions of Hindu festivals of Phagua or Holi,
Dasahra, Chaitnawami and Dawatpuja. It is said
that some factories used to give dancing parties on
the occasion of the holi festival. The factory em-
ployees used to enjoy the dancing and the tenants

88 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

were also invited. But whether they came or not
they had to pay Re. 1 each.

(18) Hathiahi There are jungles in north-
western Champaran. Planters and other Europeans
often go there for shikar. Elephants were required
for these shikars and the planters have therefore to
keep elephants. When they wanted to purchase
elephants, the tenants had to raise money from
among themselves under the name of Hathiahi, i.e..
a tax for an elephant.

(19) Gharahi, (20) Motorahi, or Hauwhi. (21)
Nawahi used to be similar exactions to enable the
planter to purchase a horse, a motor car or a boat.

(22) Ghawahi If the planter fell ill, his loyal
tenant, had to find the money for his treat-
ment. It is said of one planter that he had
a sore which required operation and treatment
for a prett}' long time. This involved much expense
which was realized from tenants under the name
of Ghawahi i. e., a tax to meet the expenses of the
treatment for a sore.

(23) Amahi, (24) Katahalahi,~When there was
a bumper crop of mangoes and jack fruits, the
factory ordered the mangoes and jack fruits to be
distributed among tenants. If any one had the
temerity to refuse this favour, he incurred the
wrath of the Sahib. But the mangoes were soon
followed by the factory peon to realize their price.
The price was, however,- not settled according to
the market rate but varied with the capacity of the
tenant to pay.

(25) Amadi Salami If the planter or any big
officer of the factory visited a village, the tenants

ABWAB 89

must of course appear before him to pay his res-
pects to him. But how could that be done empty-
handed ? Therefore even if a tenant did not care
to present himself but deposited Re. 1 with the fac-
tory servant, al\ would be well with him ; otherwise
he was taught a lesson in manners.

(26) Rasidawan was paid to the village officer
at the rate of one anna per every receipt he issued
for rent realized from the tenants.

(27) Farkhawan was a similar tax to be paid
by the tenant for an acquittance receipt granted
at the close of the year as proof of the payment of
the rent for the year in full. Its rate varied from 8
annas to one rupee for every tenant.

(28) Dasturi, (29) Hisabana, (30) Tahrir. (31)
Dewan dasturi used to be various kinds of cesses
realized from the tenants at the rate of 6 pies to
one anna per rupee of their rent. The amount
realized under this head used ordinarily to go to
the pockets of the factory servants but in some cases
the factory took hold of this also.

(32) Bisahi, Pandrahi, Dasahi It has been
pointed out already that the Sikta factory, some
time before the settlement proceedings, tried to
compound the abwab by realizing it for several years
in one lump. It is said by the tenants that in Chau-
tarwa factory abwab was realized for 20, 15 or 10
years in one lump sum. Those tenants who could
not pay in cash had to execute hand notes as was
done in the case of tawan It was realized on the
pretext of releasing the tenants from the obligation
to pay abwab just as tawan had been realized on the
pretext of releasing them from the obligation to grow
indigo,

90 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

There were several other kinds of abwabs, e.g.,
(33) Mahapatri, (34) Raj~ank t (35) Mukhdekhi, (36)
Diwanbheti, (37) Gurubheti, (38) Jangla isimnavisi,
(39) Dahicheoraha, (40) Jamunahi, etc.

These were all abwabs. But apart from these all
the planters, whether they were actual planters as in
eastern or southern Champaran or only lessees as
in northwestern Champaran, used to realize fines.
Many of the planters admitted this before the Agra-
rian Commission, but said that only small amounts
used to be realized and out of the sum realized a parr,
was kept by the factory and a part paid to the com-
plainant as damages.

The tenants mentioDed a punishment with a
peculiar name. If a woman goes wrong with a man,
the latter, if discovered, is punished. This punish-
ment is called Singarhat. It is said that this is pre-
valent in Nepal also. The factories used to realize
decent amounts under this head of singarhat. From
the names of abwabs mentioned above it is clear that
the planters know how to extract money from tenants
on some pretext or other. But it will not be right
to think that every tenant had to pay each and every
kind of abwab every year. Some of these were doubt-
less realized every year some on special occasions
and some from particular tenants. It is the opinion
of the Settlement Officer that the incidence of abwab
was equal to the legal rent, that is, every tenant had
to pay double the amount he was legally liable to pay.

The planters say that these abwabs have come
down from time immemorial, and that the leases to
them are on a system of rackrenting leaving no
margin of profit to them unless they realize abwab.
They also say that in some cases the rent payable by

ABWAB 91

them from their leasehold exceeds that realizable by
them from the tenants and in some cases abwabs
are actually mentioned in their leases. How then,
they argue, can they do without realizing these ab-
wabs ? Mr. Ampion, the Manager of the Belwa Fac-
tory, and who has the reputation of being a zabardast
planter, said in his evidence in defence of abwab
before the Commission "Is the thikedar to blame
for collecting these abwabs, for the thikedar is paid
to squeeze and must squeeze to pay." It is however
not true to say that the leases would not be profitable
without these abwabs.

Mr. J. A. Sweeney, the Settlement Officer, prov-
ed this fact before the Commission regarding the Bet-
tiah and Ramanagar leases. The Bettiah Raj pays
10 p. c. as commission to lessees. As regards the
Ramanagar Raj villages, he showed by calculation
that for 79 villages which were in lease the lessee had
to pay Rs. 40,809 as rent to the Raj, but that he was
entitled to realize only 40,547 as rent from the
tenants, that is, less than what he had to pay. But
if the income derived from the bakasht and hunda
lands be added to the rent realizable, then the total
income would come to Rs. 70,700, that is a clear profit
of Rs. 30,000 which works out at the rate of 75 p. c.
as commission for collecting the rent from the
tenants. The readers should remember that apart
from this the lessee realized abwab which also was
equal to the legal rent, that is 40,000. It should, how-
ever, be added that the lessee had to pay a heavy
premium at the commencement of the lease, but that
of course is nothing when compared with 75 p. c. for
collection charges and the 100 p. c. abwab on the
legal rental.

92 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

The tenants had sent petitions to the Govern-
ment and Government officials about these abwabs,
and when Babu Brajkishoreprasad moved a resolu-
tion in the Legislative Council for the appointment
of an Enquiry Committee, the Hon'ble Mr. Levinge,
who spoke on behalf of the Government, pointed out
that Babu Brajkishore had made a mistake in treating
all Europeans in Champaran as planters, whereas
many of them had never cultivated or manufactured
indigo at all. He also stated that the petitions of the
tenants from the northwestern portion of Champaran
were not about indigo but about abwab, and there-
fore they furnished no ground for holding any en-
quiry so far as the indigo planters properly socalled
were concerned. He further stated that these peti-
tions about abwab had been forwarded to local
officers for inquiry. No doubt this criticism of the
Hon'ble Mr. Levinge was literally true, but the fact
remains that the tenants of Champaran do not make
any distinction between an indigo planter and an
European who extracts abwab from them. To them
both represent one and the same thing a money
extracting agency.

The District Collector held enquiries on the basis
of these petitions and as a result issued a notice on
the 18th May, 1914, to the effect that with regard to
the complaints of the tenants that the Chautrawa
Factory was demanding Rs. 15 per bigha, the fac-
tory had assured him that this demand was not made
and that the tenants should not pay it, even if the
demand was made. The tenants of Belwa, Sikta
Chautrawa, Madhubani, and Naraipur went on sub-
mitting such petitions complaining about abwab to
the Collector, the Commissioner and the Lieut.-

SURVEY AND SETTLEMENT 93

Governor of the Province. But this grievance was
not fully dealt with until the Settlement Proceedings
when Mr. Sweeney after a thorough enquiry submit-
ted a report in June, 1915. The complaints of the
tenants were mostly found by him to be true in this
report, and orders were issued to stop realization of
abwabs. In the villages of the Bettiah Raj collection
of abwab was stopped after the issue of these orders,
but it continued in the villages of the Ramanagar Raj.

9
SURVEY AND SETTLEMENT

The readers will remember that Babu Braja-
kishoreprasad had proposed the appointment of a
Committee to inquire into relations between the
planters and their tenants. The Hon'ble Mr. Levinge
had in reply said that such a Committee was unneces-
sary as the Government had deputed officers for a
revisional survey and settlement of the District and
that these officers would listen to and inquire into
the grievances of the tenants, and that the Govern-
ment would take such action as was deemed neces-
sary on the receipt of the report of the Settlement
Officer. This work of Revisional Survey and Settle-
ment started in Champaran in 1913.

The Settlement Officer held a sifting inquiry into
the question of abwab, and it is no exaggeration to
say that if he had not dealt with this question as
thoroughly as he had done, Mahatma Gandhi's work
would have been even more difficult than it wag. The
Settlement Officer openly declared the painkharcha
to be an illegal abwab and told the tenants that they

94 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

could not be legally compelled to pay it. His subor-
dinates held detailed inquiries from village to village
as to what large and small canals there were and
as to their capacity to irrigate the lands of the tenants
and the amounts realized from them. It is said that
one officer ordered that water should be allowed to
flow freely to see how far it could irrigate the lands
and he himself waited there to see the result. But
in spite of all the efforts of the factory employees,
the water could not go far. and thus the officer saw
with his own eyes the inequity of the painhharcha.
He reported to the Settlement Officer that this
painhharcha was altogether illegal and the latter
verified this report by his own personal inquiries. On
his report the Government ordered this realization to
be stopped. This was stopped soon in the Bettiah
Raj, which being under the Court of Wards, is direct-
ly in Government control but the lessees of the
Ramanagar Raj continued realizing it. The tenants
of some villages, however, became emboldened
and refused to pay it ; but wherever the lessees could
get the upper hand, they realized it. The readers
will also recollect that under the Bengal Tenancy
Act a person who realizes abwab is liable to pay
double the amount realized by him as penalty. But
no steps were taken to enforce the law even against
such of the planters as admitted having realized ab-
wab. We do not know who is responsible for this.
The Settlement Officer deserves the thanks of all for
the action he took in stopping abwab. He acted very
impartially and boldly in this matter.

This is what happened in north-western Cham-
paran. There were no abwabs on such extensive
scale in south-eastern Champaran. There the trouble

SURVEY AND SETTLEMENT 95

was about tinkathia, sharahbeshi (enhancement of
rent) and tawan. The Settlement Officer had not the
power to do anything about tawan, that used to be
realized from the tenants, and he had no authority
to interfere. But the question of tinkathia and
sharahbeshi came up before him. It has to be stated
with regret that in dealing with these questions he
did not act with the sarue circumspection and care
as he had shown in dealing with abwab.

The tenants stated before him that enhance-
ment agreements were forcibly taken from them. He
decided that coercion was not proved. It was argued
on behalf of the tenants that these agreements were
illegal under the Bengal Tenancy Act. He held that
most of them were valid. The decision cannot be
said to be impartial or just ; for, as has already been
mentioned, in deciding nine cases of the Turkaulia
factory, the munsiff took several months. The Set-
tlement Officer decided 25 to 30 thousands of such
cases within a few months. Then again in 5 out of
the 9 cases of Turkaulia, these agreements were held
to be invalid and their validity was upheld only in
four of them. But the Settlement Officer had held
most of them to be valid in favour of the planters.
One thing more deserves to be mentioned. When it
was proved that the agreement for enhancement was
taken under undue influence or coercion and was
consequently invalid, the Settlement Officer recorded
it in the Record of Rights of the tenants that they
were under an obligation to grow indigo in 3 bathos
for every bigha of their, holding, which in other words
was only placing a weapon in the hands of the plant-
ers to oppress the tenants. It is not intelligible to
ordinary men that tenants who had been fighting

96 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

against tinkathia for generations and who had
almost gained a victory, would easily give away the
fruits of their victory and agree to compromises. But
the Settlement Officer recorded a large number of
such compromises and enhanced their rents. The
result naturally was that there was great discontent
among tenants who had become desperate. They
had hoped that the settlement officer deputed by the
Government would redress their grievances ; but
when they were disappointed even by him, their
miseries became unbearable. Champaran was seeth-
ing with this discontent when Mahatma Gandhi
arrived on the scene.

It must be admitted that the Settlement Officer
can justly lay claim to the credit of having put a new
life into the tenantry of Champaran. The tenants
learned to talk face to face to the planters in these
Settlement Courts. It was in these courts that the
tenants could see that the planter and the Govern-
ment were not interchangeable terms, and that even
such a thing as a decision against a planter was possi-
ble. No wonder then that, when Mahatma Gandhi
arrived, they came in their thousands to him to tell
him their woeful stories.

We have no doubt whatever that the decision of
the Settlement Officer regarding sharahbeshi was
wrong. But it is a question on which there is room
for difference of opinion. To err is human, and even
if the Settlement Officer erred, as we have no doubt
he did, we cannot lay any blame on him.

The Settlement Officer decided another matter
also. Whenever the tenants of Champaran have tried
to free themselves from the planter tyranny, the
planters have always alleged that the tenants are

THE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI 97

quite happy, that the relations between them and
their tenants are cordial, and that it is only under the
instigation of outsiders or of self-seeking men of
Champaran that at times these happy and contented
tenants get out t of hand ; so that if these instigators
are got out of the way, all will be well. The Govern-
ment also often accepted this story of the planters.
But we have seen that whenever an inquiry has been
held, no instigator has been discovered, while the
allegations of the tenants have almost always been
found to be true.

When Mahatma Gandhi arrived in Champaran,
not only the planters but some Government officers
also trotted out the same old story of an agitation
manufactured by outside agency, but we shall pre-
sently see how they failed in their attempt to side-
track the inquiry.

10
THE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI

The thirty-first session of the Indian National
Congress met at Lucknow in December, 1916. About
2,300 delegates from various parts of India attended
it. After the split at Surat, Lokamanya Tilak for the
first time attended the Congress with his followers.
The Deccan and Sindh camps were full. The number
of delegates from Gujarat, Madras and the Central
Provinces was also considerable. For U. P. people
to attend in large numbers was no matter of surprise,
as the Congress was held in their Province. Mrs.
Annie Besant with her followers came from Madras.
Bengal had also sent a large number of delegates

98 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

with the President. Even Bihar was awake and sent
a large contingent of delegates. The reason for this
was that it was proposed to place some important
resolutions before the Congress on behalf of Bihar.
Mahatma Gandhi accompanied by his son had also
come from Gujarat and had taken his residence in a
camp near the pandal.

It was proposed to place two resolutions on be-
half of Bihar. One regarding the Patna University
Bill, and the other regarding the relations between
the planters and their tenants of Champaran. Before
placing this last resolution before the Subjects Com-
mittee some people saw Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit
Madanmohan Malaviya and other leaders and dis-
cussed the matter with them. Pandit Malaviya knew
something about it but Mahatma Gandhi knew abso-
lutely nothing. When the names of speakers on the
resolution were being selected in the Subjects Com-
mittee Bihar delegates requested Mahatma Gandhi to
speak, but he said that he knew nothing about the
matter, and unless he made himself acquainted with
the situation, he would say or do nothing. The bur-
den of proposing the resolution fell upon Babu Bra-
jakishoreprasad. On the second day of the session
the following resolution was proposed before the Con-
gress.

" The Congress most respectfully urges on the Gov-
ernment the desirability of appointing a mixed Committee
of officials and non-officials to inquire into the causes of
agrarian trouble and the strained relations between the
Indigo ryots and the European Planters in North Bihar
and to suggest remedies therefor."
It is worth mentioning here that it was perhaps
the first time in its history that the Congress had to
listen to the grievances of the tenants from the lips

THE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI 99

of a tenant. The tenants of Champaran had sent
Pandit Rajkumar Shukla as their representative to
the Congress and he, in supporting the resolution,
related the miserable plight of the Champaran
tenantry.

It was the desire of Bihar and particularly Cham-
paran delegates that Mahatma Gandhi should visit
Champaran and see with his own eyes the pitiable
condition of its people and devise means for impro-
ving it. Some people had also sent a letter to him,
and one gentleman had even seen him at Ahmedabad
in this connection. But on account of want of time
Mahatma Gandhi had not been able to comply with
their request. After the above resolution was adopt-
ed by the Congress, the Bihar delegates approached
him and pressed him to come to Bihar. He promised
he would try to come about following March or
April. People were very much satisfied and on their
way back some people accompanied him to Cawn-
pore and further related to him the woeful story of
the tenants. His heart melted and he consoled them.
They came back to Champaran full of hope and began
to count the days of his advent.

After returning from Lucknow a letter was again
sent by Pandit Rajkumar Shukla on behalf of the
tenants on the 27th February, 1917.

Mahatma Gandhi wrote in reply that he would
be in Calcutta on the 7th March and enquired where
Rajkumar Shukla could meet him. On account of
some mistake of the post office the letter unfortunate-
ly did not reach Rajkumar Shukla till after the 7th
March. He had however received information that
the Mahatma had gone to Calcutta but on arriving
there he learnt that the Mahatma had already left the

100 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

place for Delhi. Rajkumar Shukla returned to Cham-
paran and wrote again to Mahatma Gandhi and re-
ceived a reply on the 16th March, 1917, saying that
the Mahatma would take the earliest opportunity of
visiting Champaran. On the 3rd April, 1917 Mahatma
Gandhi wired to Rajkumar Shukla that he was going
to Calcutta where he would stay with Mr. Bhupen-
dranath Basu and asked Rajkumar Shukla to meet
him there. On receipt of this telegram Rajkumar
Shukla went to Calcutta apd met the Mahatma there.
No one in Bihar knew anything about all this at the
time, so much so that some members from Bihar
were present at the meeting of the All India Congress
Committee to attend which Mahatma Gandhi had
gone to Calcutta, but as it was not known that he
was proceeding to Champaran from Calcutta, no one
had any talk with him. Rajkumar Shukla, too, did
not meet any of the Bihar members who consequently
remained utterly ignorant of Mahatmaji's intended
visit.

Mahatma Gandhi started on the 9th April, 1917,
with Shuklaji and arrived at Patna on the 10th April,
1917. Shuklaji took him straight to the house of
the writer. The writer was absent in Calcutta for
the meeting of the All India Congress Committee and
had proceeded from there to Puri and had not re-
turned till then to Patna. There was only a servant
in the house. He did not recognize the distinguished
guest and treated him as an ordinary visitor. The
Mahatma stopped there for a short while. When
news of his arrival reached Mr. Mazharul Haque he
came and took the Mahatma to his house. The
Hon'ble Babu Krishnasahay also came and saw the
Mahatma there. The latter had decided to proceed

THE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI

to Muzaffarpur the same evening and sent tele-
graphic information to Mr. J. B. Kripalani who was
at the time, a Professor in the G. B. B. College,
Muzaffarpur. Mahatmaji started in the evening with
Shuklaji for Muzaffarpur. The train reached Muzaf-
farpur at 10 o'clock at night. Professor Kripalani had
received the telegram and was present at the station
with some of his students to receive Mahatmaji.
Although there had been correspondence between
Mahatma Gandhi and Professor Kripalani they had
never met before. No one could recognize him, but
when Pandit Rajkumar Shukla saw the crowd of peo-
ple he understood that they must have come to
receive the Mahatma and he called them and showed
the great man to them. People gave a reception at
the station, took his arti, and dragged his carriage.
Mahatmaji stopped with Professor Kripalani in his
hostel.

On the llth April, 1917, Mahatma Gandhi saw
Mr. J. M. Wilson, the Secretary of the Planters' Asso-
ciation, explained to him the object of his visit, told
him that he had come to inquire into the causes of
the misunderstanding between the tenants and the
planters, and asked for his help in his inquiry. Mr.
Wilson told him that he would give such assistance
as he would be able to render in his personal capa-
city but he could not take any responsibility on
behalf of the Association. The same evening a
number of vakils of Muzaffarpur came to see Mahat-
maji. One of them pressed Mahatmaji to proceed to
Champaran at once. Mahatmaji agreed. On the
12th April, 1917, Mahatmaji sent intimation of his
arrival to the Hon'ble Mr. L. F. Morshead, the Com-
missioner of the Tirhut Division, and informed him

1Q2 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

of the object of his visit and asked for an appointment
to meet him. On the same day Mr. Wilson wrote to
Mahatmaji saying that no inquiry was needed and
advised him not to go to Champaran. He also said
that if Mahatmaji commenced this work during war
time, self-seeking agitators would utilize the opportu-
nity for their selfish ends which might do more harm
than good to those to help whom he came. Babu
Brajakishore arrived at Muzaffarpur from Darbhanga
the same evening. On the 13th April, 1917, Mahatma-
ji saw the Commissioner. Mr. D. Weston, the Col-
lector of Muzaffarpur, was also present there. The
Commissioner expressed his disapproval of Mahatma-
ji's visit to Bihar and inquired who had brought him
there. He also told him that inquiry was being made
on behalf of the Government ; that Mahatmaji's visit
was unnecessary ; that he would not give any assist-
ance to him in his inquiry and finally advised him
to go away at once. Mahatmaji told him in reply
that he had been receiving letters from the people
for a long time but he could not produce them before
him ; that at the last Congress the delegates from
Bihar had asked him to move a resolution at the
Congress regarding Champaran but that he had
refused to do so on the ground that he would not
make himself a party to it unless he had seen things
with his own eyes ; and that thereupon the delegates
had asked him to visit Champaran and he was ac-
cordingly there.

Mahatmaji was not likely to change his decision
on account of this conversation with the Commis-
sioner. The more the Secretary of the Planters'
Association and the Commissioner persisted in their
advice to him not to visit Champaran, his suspicion

'THE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI 1Q3

that there must be something wrong became deeper
and his determination to go there more and more
confirmed. The Mahatma could see after this inter-
view that the planters and the local officials could
not help him in his inquiry but might put obstacles
in his way.

. After his return from the Commissioner's house
Mahatmaji asked some prominent delegates to the
Lucknow Congress to give him a letter to the effect
that they and some other delegates from Bihar had
requested him at the Congress to hold an inquiry in
Champaran. Along with this letter he sent a letter
of his own, saying that he had come to find the truth
with regard to the relation between planters and the
ryots in view of certain statements which had been
made to him. That was the only object of his visit
and all that he wanted was peace with honour.

The news of Mahatmaji's arrival had already
reached Champaran and a large number of tenants
came all the way to Muzaffarpur. Mahatmaji listen-
ed to their story and perused such papers as he could
get. He had not upto this time formed any idea as
to the true situation in Champaran and at times it
seemed that he was not inclined to believe all that he
was told. He used sometimes to ask, " Is it possible ?
Can this be true ? " But at the same time his resolve
to go to Champaran was becoming more and more
firm.

On 14th April, 1917, he decided to start for
Champaran on the following day (Sunday, the
15th April, 1917) by the midday train and he asked
those who were present there to give him some one
who could act as interpreter, as he could not under-
stand the dialect of the village people. It was decided

104 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

at the time that arrangements should be made for
this. In the evening of the same day he visited a
neighbouring village and saw the condition of the
people there. He entered the huts of some poor
men, saw how they were living there and talked to
little children and women. When he was leaving
the village he said that India would get Swaraj only
when the condition of these people would improve.
The same evening it was decided that Babu Dharani-
dhar and Babu Rainnavmiprasad, pleaders, would ac-
company Mahatmaji to Champaran. The conversa-
tion which Mahatmaji had that night with the people
there greatly encouraged and inspired them. He
related to them his South African experiences ; how
when one man was sent to jail, others used to take his
place and how when he was also removed his place
was taken by another and so on. He said, " I wish
that work should be done in the same way here. I
know that these people (planters and Government
officials) would act harshly towards me and a war-
rant for my arrest may come any moment. I am
therefore anxious to reach Champaran as quickly as
possible, so that whatever action they may have to
take against me, may be taken in the midst of the
ryots of Champaran. I know that in Bihar I cannot
get men of this type ; those who will accompany me
will only act as clerks and interpreters ; as for the
rest we shall see later/'

On the 15th April, 1917, Mahatmaji accom-
panied by Babus Dharanidhar and Ramnavmiprasad
started by the midday train for Motihari. He was
from his very start expecting a warrant of arrest.
With the exception of a few necessary articles he
had put the rest of his luggage separately in a trunk.

THE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI 1Q5

A large number of gentlemen came to see him off
at the station. On the way at almost every station
a large number of tenants had assembled to greet
him. Mahatmaji reached Motihari at 3 o'clock in
the afternoon and went straight to the house of Babu
Gorakhprasad, pleader, where he stopped. The news
of his arrival spread through the town in no time,
and a large crowd assembled there. Many Govern-
ment servants also came to sec him ; but finding the
Police there these retraced their steps. Mahatmaji
immediately decided to visit a village, Jasaulipatti,
on the next day ( 16-4-' 17), from where news of
oppression on a respectable farmer had been receiv-
ed ; and the other tenants were informed that their
statements would be recorded on the following
Thursday after his return from Jasaulipatti.

Arrangements were made for taking Mahatmaji
to Jasaulipatti on the 16th April, and accordingly,
Mahatmaji and his two interpreters started for
Jasaulipatti about 9 a.m. on an elephant. It was the
month of Baishakh ; the sun was hot and there was
strong westerly wind, and one got almost scorched
in the open. Mahatmaji was not used to riding an
elephant ; then there were three men on the elephant
and to add to all the strong west wind was actually
causing a shower of dust and sand ; but in the
Mahatma's heart there was burning a fire to see and
to redress the miseries of the ryots, compared with
which the outward heat of the sun and the dust and
sand were nothing. On the way they were talking
on various subjects and topics. One of the subjects
discussed was the ' purda ' system in Bihar. He said :
"It is not my desire that our women should adopt
the western mode of living ; but we must realize

106 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

what harm this pernicious system does to their
health and in how many ways they are deprived of
the privilege of helping their husbands." By 12
o'clock noon they had travelled about 9 miles from
Motihari and reached a village called Chandrahia.
Mahatmaji desired to see the condition of the village.
On enquiry it was ascertained that it was one of the
villages of the Motihari Factory and the majority of
its residents were labourers, who had all gone to the
factory for work. They however met a man who
explained to them the condition of the village and
boasted that even the Collector of the District dared
not do anything against the Sahib, the Manager of
the Factory. It appeared from his talk that he was
connected with the factory. While this conversation
was going on, a man in ordinary plain clothes was
seen coming on a bicycle. He was a Police Sub-
Inspector. He told Mahatmaji that the Collector
had sent salaams to him (a police form of asking
for an interview). Mahatmaji asked him to arrange
for a conveyance and told his companions, " I was
expecting that something of this sort would happen.
You need not mind it. You proceed to Jasaulipatti
and do the work there. If necessary you may stop
there for the night also/' The Sub-Inspector brought
a bullock cart and Mahatmaji started in it for Moti-
hari, while his two companions proceeded to Jasauli-
patti.

On the way Mahatmaji came across an ekka and
on the request of the Sub-Inspector, he left the cart
and took the ekka. When they had gone a short
distance a police officer was seen coming on a tamtam
and Mahatmaji was taken from the ekka to the tam-
tam. The police officer who had come in the tamtam

t HE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI

was the Deputy Superintendent of Police. When
they had gone a little further, he stopped the tamtam,
showed a notice to Mahatmaji, who quietly read
it and after reaching Motihari, gave him a receipt for
it. The notice was as follows :

To

Mr. M. K. Gandhi

At present in Motihari.

Whereas it has been made to appear to me from
the letter of the Commissioner of the Division, copy
of which is attached to this order, that your presence
in any part of the District will endanger the public
peace and may lead to serious disturbance which may
be accompanied by loss of life and whereas urgency
is of the utmost importance ;

Now therefore I do hereby order you to abstain
from remaining in the District, which you are re-
quired to leave by the next available train.

W. B. Heycock,

Dist. Magistrate,
16th April, 1917. Champaran.

To the notice was annexed a copy of a letter
from the Commissioner which was as follows :

To

The Dist. Magistrate of Champaran.
Sir,

Mr. M. K. Gandhi has come here in response to
what he describes as an insistent public demand to
inquire into the conditions under which Indians
work on indigo plantations and desires the help of
the local administration. He came to see me this
morning and I explained that the relations between
the planters and the ryots had engaged the attention

108 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

of the administration since the sixties, and that we
were particularly concerned with a phase of the pro-
blem in Champaran now ; but that it was doubtful
whether the intervention of a stranger in the middle
of the treatment of our case would not prove an
embarrassment. I indicated the potentialities of
disturbance in Champaran, asked for credentials to
show an insistent public demand for his inquiry and
said that the matter would probably need reference
to Government.

I expected that Mr. Gandhi would communicate
with me again before he proceeds to Champaran but
1 have been informed since our interview that his
object is likely to be agitation rather than a genuine
search for knowledge and it is possible that he may
proceed without further reference. I consider that
there is a danger of disturbance to the public tran-
quillity should he visit your District. I have the
honour to request you to direct him by an order
under section 144 Cr. P. C. to leave it at once if he
should appear.

I have the honour etc.

L. F. Morshead,
Commissioner of the Tirhut Division.

Mahatmaji immediately on his arrival at Moti-
hari sent the following reply to the Magistrate :

Sir,

With reference to the order under section 144
Criminal Procedure Code just served upon me I beg
to state that I am sorry that you have felt called upon
to issue it and I am sorry, too, that the Commissioner
of the Division has totally misinterpreted my position.
Out of a sense of public responsibility, I feel it to be

THE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI 1Q9

my duty to say that I am unable to leave the District
but if it so pleases the authorities, I shall submit to
the order by suffering the penalty of disobedience.

I must emphatically repudiate the Commis-
sioner's suggestion that my object is likely to be
agitation. My desire is purely and simply for a
genuine search for knowledge. And this I shall con-
tinue to satisfy so long as I am free.
16th April, 1917. M. K. Gandhi.

Mr. H. S. Polak, Pandit Madanmohan Mala-
viya and other leaders of India as also the writer
were informed of what had happened by telegrams
and Mr. C. F. Andrews was wired to come at once.

Mahatmaji prepared a number of directions for
the guidance of those who were to carry on the work
after him.

Babus Dharanidhar and Ramnavmiprasad on the
other hand reached Jasaulipatti at about 3pm and
after recording the statements of some men returned
to Motihari and learned about the notice under sec-
tion 144 Criminal Procedure Code. Mahatmaji gave
them a copy of the directions he had prepared and
explained to them in detail how the work would have
to be conducted after his imprisonment. He also told
them that if they followed him to jail, then his
mission would be successful in no time.

The next day (Tuesday 17-4-17) had already
been fixed for recording the statements of tenants.
Accordingly many tenants came to Motihari and
their statements began to be recorded. The Police
Sub-Inspector also arrived on the scene and began
to note down the names of the tenants who gave
statements at first stealthily and after a time openly.

HO SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

Such large numbers of tenants had come that gentle-
men who were recording the statements had not even
a moment's rest throughout the day. Mahatmaji of
course knew that he would have to go to jail for dis-
obeying the order. He consequently did not allow
the work in any way to suffer, nor was any mention
made to the tenants of what had happened. On the
same day it was decided that village Parsauni about
16 miles to the south of Motihari would be visited
on the following day and information was sent ac-
cordingly. Conveyance was also arranged. The
idea was to start at about 3 a.m. and if there was any
delay or difficulty in getting the conveyance to go
walking on foot.

While the arrangements were being made, tele-
grams were pouring in from all parts of India. Mr.
Polak wired from Allahabad that he would reach
Patna the same evening. Mr. Mazharul Haque wired
his readiness to start, if required. Mahatmaji's reply
to Mr. Haque's telegram was that Mr. Haque's pre-
sence would be required after his imprisonment. The
writer was informed to come at once with volunteers.
Pandit Malaviya wired for information and express-
ed his willingness to come, leaving the Hindu Uni-
versity work. The reply to him too was that his
presence was not yet needed. The work of recording
the statements of tenants went on the whole day.

When no summons was received upto the even-
ing about any charge of disobedience of orders,
Mahatmaji wrote a letter to the District Magistrate
in which he intimated to him his intention of visiting
village Parsauni on the next day. He also told the
Magistrate that he did not intend doing anything
secretly. It would therefore be better, if a police

THE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI

officer accompanied him. Immediately on receipt of
the letter the Magistrate wrote to him that he would
be charged with an offence under section 188 I. P. C.,
that a summons would be issued against him and
that the Magistrate hoped that he (Mahatmaji) would
not leave Motiliari. Shortly after this letter was
received, the summons also came calling upon
Mahatmaji to appear before the Sub-divisional Officer
on the 18th April, 1917, at 12-30 p.m. After this
Mahatmaji further discussed the situation with his
co-workers. It was first considered that they should
stick to their programme and go to Parsauni. But later
on it was thought that it was not necessary to do so.
Mahatmaji asked them " What will you do after
I am sent to jail ? " The question was a difficult one
and not easy to answer. Babu Dharanidhar said, " For
the present I am only prepared for this that when
you are sent to jail I will continue the work and if
a notice under section 144 is served on me also, I
will arrange for a substitute and leave the District.
In this way the work will be continued at least for
some time/' Mahatmaji did not appear to be satisfied
with this answer any more than his co-workers who
went on considering and discussing this matter
between themselves for the whole night. After sum-
mons had been served Mahatmaji felt quite content-
ed and happy and sat down to write letters. He went
on working the whole night without any rest at all.
Mahatmaji in the course of the same night prepared
a statement to be read before the Court. He also
wrote letters to the Secretary of Planters' Association
and the Commissioner in which he recounted in so
far as he had come to know them, the grievances of
the tenants and suggested the remedies ; he gave

112 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

instructions that these and some other letters which
he wrote should be posted only after his imprison-
ment.

The writer after receiving the telegram at Patna
saw the principal publicists there and explained to
them the situation that had arisen in Champaran. He
also sent a telegram to Babu Brajakishore informing
him of the proceedings under section 144. A tele-
gram was received at Patna from Mr. Polak, that he
would reach Patna the same evening by the Punjab
Mail. In the evening a sort of small conference was
held at Patna in which it was decided that Mr. Polak,
the writer and such other persons as could be found,
should start the next day (18-4-17) by the morning
train for Motihari. It was expected that Babu Braja-
kishore would also arrive by the same morning train.

The 18th of April, 1917, is a memorable day in
the history not only of Champaran, but of the whole
of India. It was on this day that Mahatma Gandhi
was preparing himself to go to jail for the sake of
the poor and suffering people of the province of
Bihar. On this day the whole of India was to get
her first lesson and her first modern example of
Satyagraha which was to open new flood gates of
light and of vision before her. It is an old saying
that no harm can come to the true, but a practical
demonstration of this was to be given to the world on
this day by Mahatma Gandhi. Ready and determin-
ed to remove the grievances of the tenants, and
equally determined to do no injury to those who had
been oppressing them, it was, as it were, the great
soul of Mahatma Gandhi was born in human shape to
reconcile these apparently irreconcilable elements.
Could any obstacles bar the path of such a man ?

THE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI H3

The eyes of all India from one end to the other
were turned towards Champaran. Time passed, as
if almost unnoticed, and it was about 12 noon.
Mahatmaji separated those of his things which he
wanted to take with himself to jail from those which
he wanted to leave behind, and kept the latter in a
separate place. The work of recording statements
was also stopped today and the tenants were told
that this work would commence again on the follow-
ing day. At quarter past 12 Mahatmaji accompanied
by his two interpreters started in a carriage for the
Court. On the way Babu Dharanidhar told Mahatmaji
that he and Babu Ramnavmi had decided to follow
him to jail, even though others might not. Mahatmaji
felt very much pleased and said with joy " Now I
know we shall succeed."

Although no information had been given to the
tenants about the proceedings under section 144 and
subsequent prosecution, yet the news had somehow
reached not only every corner of the town but even
distant villages and several thousand tenants had
assembled in the Court compound and were waiting
for Mahatmaji from 10 o'clock. Their own desire
was to have a look at the man who was going to jail
in order to relieve their distress. When Mahatmaji
entered the Court room, he was followed by about
2,000 men who, in their anxiety to get in, br.oke the
glass-panes of the doors. The Magistrate seeing the
great crowd asked Mahatmaji to wait for a little while
in the Mokhtiars' library. Mahatmaji went to the
library while the Magistrate sent for armed police to
prevent the people from entering the Court-room and
to prevent any disturbance in his work. Mahatmaji

114 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

was surrounded in the library by a large crowd
of people, the eyes of all of whom were fixed on him,
while tears were streaming down the cheeks of many
of them. Shortly afterwards Mahatmaji was sent for
and went to the Magistrate's Court-room. There the
Government pleader was ready with his books of law
and precedent. He had perhaps thought that he was
going to prosecute a great man like Mahatma Gandhi
who had himself been a famous lawyer and he ex-
pected that there would be a very long and learned
argument. He had possibly not slept the previous
night, looking up precedents and law reports. When
Mahatmaji arrived, the Magistrate asked him, " Have
you got any pleader ? " and the short reply was
" No, none." Some people were surprised, but still
they thought that having been a great advocate he
would himself argue his case. The Government
pleader opened the case and stated that under orders
issued under section 144 Mr. Gandhi ought to have
left Champ^ran on the night of the 16th April, but
that he had not yet done so and he was consequently
charged with an offence under section 188 I. P. C.
Mahatmaji said that on receipt of the order he had
sent a reply to the Magistrate in which he had stated
his reasons for disobeying the order and he wished
that the letter should be placed on the record. The
Magistrate said that the letter was not there and if
Mahatma Gandhi thought it necessary, he might
apply for it. Thereafter Mahatma Gandhi read out
his statement jp. a firm, calm and determined voice.
While he was reading it there was pin-drop silence
in spite of the large crowd that was present there,
and all eyes were fixed on him, and as he proceeded
wonder and unspeakable love became depicted on

THE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI H5

the faces of the audience. The statement was as

follows :

"With the permission of the Court I would
like to make a brief statement showing why I have
taken a very serious step of seemingly disobeying
the order made under section 144 of Cr. P. C. In
my humble opinion it is a question of difference of
opinion between the local administration and my-
self. I have entered the country with motives of
rendering humanitarian and national service. I
have done so in response to a pressing invitation
to come and help the ryots, who urge they are
not being fairly treated by the indigo planters. I
could not render any help without studying the
problem. I have, therefore, come to study it with
the assistance, if possible, of the administration
and the planters. I have no other motive and can-
not believe that my coming can in any way disturb
public peace and cause loss of life. I claim to have
considerable experience in such matters. The ad-
ministration, however, have thought differently. I
fully appreciate their difficulty and I admit, too,
that they can only proceed upon information they
receive. As a law-abiding citizen my first instinct
would be, as it was, to obey the order served upon
me. But I could not do so without doing violence
to my sense of duty to those for whom I came. I
feel that I could just now serve them only by re-
maining in their midst. I could not therefore
voluntarily retire. Amidst this conflict of duty I
could only throw the responsibility of removing
me from them on the administration. I am fully
conscious of the fact that a person, holding in the
public life of India a position such as I do, has to

SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

be most careful in setting examples. It is my firm
belief that in the complex constitution under which
we are living the only safe and honourable course
for a self-respecting man is, in the circumstances
such as face me, to do what I have decided to do,
that is, to 'submit without protest to the penalty of
disobedience.

" I venture to make this statement not in any
way in extenuation of the penalty to be awarded
against me, but to show that I have disregarded the
order served upon me not for want of respect for
lawful authority, but in obedience to the higher
law of our being, the voice of conscience."

Till now the Government pleader had been ex-
pecting that Mahatmaji would offer defence. It may
be stated here that order under section 144 was
wholly illegal. It is the opinion of many lawyers of
note, that if the case had been argued and even if the
Magistrate had convicted Mahatmaji, he would surely
have been acquitted by the High Court. The Gov-
ernment pleader had anticipated this difficulty and
had brought books to meet it as best as he might.
The Magistrate could not make up his mind what to
do next. He repeatedly asked Mahatmaji, if
he pleaded guilty. Mahatmaji's reply was " I
have said whatever I have to say in my state-
ment." The Magistrate said that that did not con-
tain a clear plea of guilty. Mahatmaji thereupon,
said, " I do not wish to waste the time of the Court
and I plead guilty/* This put out the Magistrate still
further. He told Mahatmaji, " If you leave the Dis-
trict now and promise not to return, the case against
you would be withdrawn." Mahatmaji replied, " That
cannot be. Not to speak of this time alone, I shall

THE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI

make Champaran my home even after my return
from jail"

The Magistrate was dumb-founded and could
only say that the matter required consideration and
that he would pass orders later at 3 o'clock. The
whole of this memorable trial was over in about half
an hour's time and Mahatmaji was about to return
to his lodgings when the Deputy Superintendent of
Police came and told him that the Superintendent of
Police wanted to see him. Mahatmaji accompanied
him to the Superintendent. This latter gentleman
had at one time been in South Africa and talked
freely to Mahatmaji, claiming an old acquaintance.
He spoke a great deal against Rajkumar Shukla
and promised to bring about a meeting between
Mahatmaji and planters. Thereafter Mahatmaji saw
the District Magistrate Mr. W. B. Heycock, who ex-
pressed regret at the necessity he felt himself under
to take proceedings against him and said that
Mahatmaji ought to have seen him earlier. Mahat-
maji replied that after the treatment he had received
from the Commissioner it was neither possible
nor proper for him to see the Magistrate to court
a rebuff. The Magistrate requested Mahatmaji to post-
pone his visits to villages for three days to which
Mahatmaji consented.

Mahatmaji appeared before the Magistrate short-
ly before 3 o'clock. The Magistrate told him that
he would pass orders on 21st April, 1917, but that he
would release him in the meantime on a bail of
Rs. 100. Mahatmaji said that he had no bailor and
could not offer bail. The Magistrate was again in
difficulty and found a way out by offering to release

SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

him on his personal recognizance. Mahatmaji re-
turned to his lodgings at about three o'clock. From
there he sent information about what had happened
to friends and newspapers, at the same time request-
ing them not to create any agitation in the Press
until the Government orders were known.

On the 18th April, a party consisting of Messrs.
Polak, Haque, Brajakishore, Anugrahanarayan, Sham-
bhusharan and the writer left Patna by the 7
a.m. train for Motihari. On the way Mr. Polak
recounted several stories of Mahatmaji's doings in
South Africa and we reached Motihari at 3 p.m. On
arriving there we learnt what had happened in Court
in the course of the day and it seemed that matters
would not probably proceed further and the case
would most likely be withdrawn. It was at the same
time felt that if, however, the case was not withdrawn
and Mahatmaji was in any way touched then the
work would have to be continued. The new-comers
were apprised of what had happened till then and
the whole party met at 7-30 p.m. to consider the
future plan of action. Here too the same question
arose as to what would happen after Mahatmaji's
imprisonment. There was no doubt that the work
must be continued ; but if in continuing it, it was
necessary to face imprisonments, should we be able
to do so ? The new-comers felt very much encouraged
when they heard of the determination of Babu Dhar-
nidhar and Babu Ramnavmi and they all said in one
voice that they also would not lag behind. When we
were discussing this matter amongst ourselves Mahat-
maji was not there. When we had decided this we
communicated our decision to him. Mahatmaji was
filled with joy and Mr. Polak also was very much

THE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI

pleased. Mahatmaji, like the practical man that he
is, asked us to make a definite programme. It was
accordingly decided that if Mahatmaji went to jail,
Mr. Haque and Babu Brajakishoreprasad would take
the lead and intimation of this would be sent to the
Government officers. If they were removed, then Babu
Dl^arnidhar and Babu Ramnavmi would take charge
of the work. If they too were picked up, the writer,
Babu Shambhusharan, and Babu Anugrahanarayan,
would continue the work. It was hoped that by the
time these batches were removed, other people would
have joined the party and further programme would
be fixed later on. In accordance with this decision
Mr. Haque and Batyu Brajakishore were permitted to
go to Patna and Darbhanga respectively to settle their
affairs at home, so that they might return by the 21st
April which was the date fixed by the Magistrate for
passing orders. Mr. Haque had a professional en-
gagement at Gorakhpur and it was arranged that
he would return straight from Gorakhpur either on
the evening of the 21st or on the morning of the
22nd. Mr. Haque who was then a member of the
Viceroy's Legislative Council sent a long telegram to
the Viceroy, detailing the happenings in Champaran.
After arranging all this Mr. Polak, Mr. Haque and
Babu Brajakishore left Motihari by the night train.
From 19-4-'17 batches after batches of tenants
began to pour in and Mahatma Gandhi's assistants
began to record their statements. Mahatmaji him-
self recorded the statements of a few of these and
read the statements recorded by others. Those who
were entrusted with the work of recording statements
were told to cross-examine the tenants carefully and
closely, to record only such statements as appeared

120 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

to them to be true, and if they came across any case
which required immediate enquiry to draw Mahatma
Gandhi's attention to it. While we were recording
statements the Police Sub-Inspector used to be pre-
sent taking notes of what was going on. On this
day, too, telegrams were received from various parts
of the country and information was sent to friends
of what was happening. Mr. C. P. Andrews arrived
that afternoon. He had never been to Champaran
before, and the people of Champaran too had never
seen an Englishman like Mr. Andrews. His simple
dress, plain and straight talk and above all his face
beaming with love endeared him to all who came
near him. Mahatmaji related to him all that had
happened. Mr. Andrews went to see the Collector,
but could not meet him.

We had all been staying upto this time at the
house of Babu Gorakhprasad ; but our number was
growing and we saw that the work was likely to take
time. It was accordingly decided that we should take
a house on rent. Babu Ramadayalprasad, who is an
enthusiastic young man of the famous Sahu family
of the place, secured a house for us. It was decided
that we should shift to that house and Mahatmaji
ordered that we should remove that very evening.
We accordingly went to the new house the same night.
It is necessary to state here that all the time that
Mahatmaji and his assistants remained in Champa-
ran the Sahu family gave them every kind of as-
sistance.

On Mr. Polak returning to Patna, a meeting of
the Bihar Provincial Association was held under the
presidency of the Hon'ble Rai Krishnasahai Baha-
dur. Mr. Polak explained the situation in Champaran

THE ADVENT OP MAHATMA GANDHI

and requested the leaders to go to Champaran.
The Association resolved to give all possible assist-
ance to Mahatmaji in his inquiry.

On the 20th April, 1917, Mr. Andrews saw the
Collector, Mr. Heycock. There he learnt that the
case against Mahatmaji would be withdrawn and the
Goyernment officers would help him in the enquiry.
We were not aware of this decision of the Govern-
ment and it had accordingly been decided on the 19th
to request Bihar leaders to visit Champaran, and
telegrams had been sent to Mr. Hasan Imam, Mr. S.
Sinha and the Hon'ble Babu Krishnasahai, Babu
Brajakishoreprasad returned the same day from
Darbhanga. The statements of the tenants conti-
nued to be recorded the whole day. There was such
a continuous stream of these tenants that there was
not a minute's break between 6-30 a.m. and 6-30 p.m.
Many had to stay overnight and still their statements
could not be recorded the next day. We accordingly
arranged to take down the names of all those who
were left over for the next day for want of time and
they were given priority the following day. Work
continued like this.

At about 7 p.m. notice was received that the case
had been withdrawn.

On 21-4-'17 statements continued to be recorded.
There was a great crowd of tenants. They were
under the impression that orders in the Mahatma's
case would be passed that day and they had come
from long distances. From Bettiah alone some 500
persons had come. When they received the news of
the withdrawal of the case, they were naturally very
pleased. They also came to get their statements re-
corded. Two Sub-Inspectors of Police who had been

122 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

kept to watch us and our proceedings were removed
from that duty this day. The same afternoon Mr.
S. Sinha and Rai Bahadur Krishnasahai arrived
from Patna and had a long conversation with Mahat-
maji. Mr. Hassan Imam could not come himself,
but he sent monetary assistance. Mdhatmaji decided
to go to Bettiah on the 24th.

Mr. Andrews had previously settled to go to Fiji.
Mahatmaji was of opinion that he should not change
his programme. We were of opinion that the trouble
with the planters was not yet quite over and the
presence of a gentleman like Mr. Andrews would be
a great help. We spoke to Mr. Andrews and he said
that he would abide by Mahatmaji's decision. In
the evening the matter was mentioned to Mahatmaji
and it was suggested that Mr. Andrews should be
detained. The reply that Mahatmaji gave us had a
great effect on our mental outlook. He said he knew
the reason why we wanted to detain Mr. Andrews
and that reason was that this fight being against the
white planters the presence of a white man like Mr.
Andrews would give us some protection ; but that
he (Mahatmaji) was not prepared to seek or give
any protection of that sort. It was a weakness on
our part to seek it and it was necessary for that very
reason, that Mr. Andrews should go. But if Mr.
Andrews felt the call for Champaran as more urgent
than that for Fiji he might stay ; but this he must
decide himself. It was ultimately settled that Mr.
Andrews should go to Fiji and that he must start by
the next morning train.

On this and the following days a number of
pleaders arrived from Muzaflarpur and Chapra to
help in recording statements. As usual there was a

THE ADVENT OF MAHATMA GANDHI 123

large crowd of tenants. Mr. Andrews started by the
10 a.m. train and Mr. Haque returned from Gorakh-
pur by the same train. While we were recording
statements information was received from a Village
that a man had been shut up by the underlings of a
factory in one 6f its godowns. Mahatmaji deputed
Babu Anugrahanarayan to proceed to the place at
once and wrote to the Superintendent of Police asking
for his assistance. Babu Anugrahanarayan reached the
place, but the factory people having received infor-
mation of his arrival let off the man and asked him
to go out by a back-door. Anugrahababu chanced
to meet the man and brought him to Motihari.

The same afternoon Mahatmaji accompanied by
some of the workers went to Bettiah leaving behind
others at Motihari to record statements of tenants
who came there.

When the news of the proceedings under section
144 Cr. P. C. and the prosecution of Mahatma Gandhi
and its withdrawal was published almost all the
papers of India severely criticized the action of the
Commissioner and praised the Government for order-
ing withdrawal of the case and directing its local
officers to help Mahatmaji.

11

MAHATMA GANDHI AT BETTIAH

It has been said above that Mahatma Gandhi went
to Bettiah by the afternoon train of the 22nd April.
The news of the withdrawal of the case, as also that
Mahatmaji was going to Bettiah by that train had
already spread. There were crowds of people await-
ing at every railway station to have a look ( darshan )
at him ; and the arrival of the train was signalized
by shouts of Jai and showering of flowers. The train
reached Bettiah at about 5 p.m. There was such a
huge crowd at the station that to avoid any acci-
dent the train had to be stopped some way off from
the platform. The Mahatma was travelling in a
3rd class compartment. The people of the town and
villages welcomed him. They rent the skies with
their cries of Jai and there was a regular hail-storm
of flowers.

Mahatmaji took his seat in a carriage. The peo-
ple unharnessed the horses and wanted to pull the
carriage themselves. But Mahatmaji prohibited them
and expressed his determination to leave the carriage
if they persisted. The people yielded and the horses
were again harnessed. More than 10,000 people were
present there. The carriage could move but slowly and
with great difficulty. On both sides of the road count-
less men and women were standing. It was the long-
looked-for day of Mahatma Gandhi's arrival and he
had arrived. No one felt any doubt that the miseries
of the tenants would now disappear. This faith was
deeply engraven on their simple faces. No one had

124

MAHATMA GANDHI AT BETTIAH 125

said anything to the people about Mahatmaji. Very
few people knew his past career. There were fewer
still who were acquainted with his South African
Satyagraha. What was it that created this confidence ?
It was apparently without any reason. What was
at the root of this firm and unquestioning faith ? I
cannot answer this question. The faith was firm,
the heart was true. These bore their fruit. Mahat-
maji drove from the station to the dharamshala
of Babu Hazarimal. There he was received by Babu
Surajmal, who made all arrangements for Mahat-
maji's stay there. Mahatmaji stayed at the dharam-
shala all the time he remained in Bettiah and the
proprietors were ever ready to serve.

On the following day Mahatmaji saw Mr. W. H.
Lewis, the Sub-divisional Magistrate of Bettiah and
Mr. J. T. Whitty, the Manager of the Bettiah Raj.
They had already received communications from the
Collector about Mahatmaji.

At Bettiah also statements began to be recorded.
There used to be large crowds here also. On the
24th April Mahatmaji and Babu Brajakishore went to
a village called Laukaria. The people related to them
their grievances. Mahatmaji talked to small boys,
inquired about the wages paid to them by factories
and by other agriculturists, and made rather sifting
enquiries about wages. Mr. Lewis also visited the
place where statements were being recorded and
stopped there for a short time. In spite of his pre-
sence the tenants fearlessly mentioned their grievan-
ces. Babu Brajakishoreprasad was recording their
statements after subjecting them to a searching cross-
examination. It is believed that Mr. Lewis came
back satisfied with the method and procedure of the

126 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

inquiry. Mahatmaji spent the night there. He also
visited Mr. H. Gale, the Manager of the Byreah fac-
tory, and had a long talk with him about his factory
and his villages. While Mahatmaji was returning
from the factory, an incident occurred which deserves
mention here. He had gone a short distance when
a factory servant came running to him and told him,
" I was apprehending that the factory manager might
behave rudely towards you ; I was therefore over-
hearing the whole conversation from a concealed
corner, ready to come to your assistance., come what
might to me, in case anything untoward happened
to you." The way he spoke showed that he was
speaking the truth and this incident only proves that
even those who were not in a position to support and
help Mahatmaji openly were secretly praying for his
success, and further were even ready to come to his
assistance, if any occasion demanded it.

On the evening of the 25th April, Mahatmaji
came back all the way walking from Laukaria to
Bettiah which caused a swelling in one of his feet.

The work of recording statements was going on
at Motihari ; but since Mahatmaji's arrival at Bettiah
the crowd there became larger and more assistants
had to be called there. The statements which were
recorded at Motihari used to be sent every night to
Mahatmaji through a messenger.

On the 26th of April Mahatmaji went to see a
village, Sindhachhapra under the Kuria factory. This
village is at a short distance from Bettiah. There
were also some policemen with him. He went round
the village and saw the condition there. What he
saw there melted his heart. He found indigo grown
all round the houses of the tenants.

MAHATMA GANDHI AT BETT1AH 127

On the 27th April, Mahatmaji accompanied by
Babu Brajakishoreprasad and others went to see some
villages under the Belwa factory. On the way Babu
Yindhyabasiniprasad, a vakil from Gorakhpur, joined
the party to , assist Mahatmaji. Early in the
morning Mahatmaji and the party started on foot
from the Narkatiaganj Railway Station for Murali
Bharahwa which is at a distance of 6 or 7 miles from
there. In spite of the. hot sun of the month of Baisakh
they all managed to reach Murali Bharahwa on foot
at about 10 o'clock. Pandit Rajkumar Shukla, who
had been sent to the Lucknow Congress as their re-
presentative by the tenants of Champaran and who
had accompanied Mahatmaji from Calcutta, is a resi-
dent of this village. He showed his house to
Mahatmaji, which, he said, had been looted by the
factory people only a month before. The framework
of the house was standing in a disturbed condition.
The earthen kothis in which grain is kept were lying
upset and trunks of the plantain trees were lying
here and there scattered on the ground. On his fields,
which, he said, were grazed by cattle under orders
of the factory, were still standing the stalks and stems
of the crop which had been so destroyed. * Mahatmaji
saw all this and was very much touched. A large
number of persons were examined there and hun-
dreds of people made statements about the loot. Some
of them were people whose cattle were let loose to
graze in the field. Mahatmaji went and saw Mr.
A. C. Ammon, the Manager of the Belwa factory. At

* Rajkumar Shukla stated the fact of his house being
looted before the Agrarian Committee. But it was denied by
Mr. A. C. Ammon, the Manager of the Belwa factory.

128 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

night the party stayed in the village of Belwa and
the next morning they all returned to Bettiah.

After his return from Belwa he again went and
saw Mr. Lewis and Mr. Whitty and had a long talk
with them. The planters and the local officers were
very much upset by Mahatmaji's visit. Mr. Lewis
was very apprehensive and had drawn before his
imagination a terrible picture of a likely disturbance
and had begun to imagine that no one would care
for any Government officials any more. Prom the
talk that he had with Mahatmaji the latter gathered
that he would send a report about all this to the
Government.

At about 4-30 the same afternoon we all began
to discuss what we should do if the Government took
steps again against the party. We could not be
punished for any offence without a regular trial. The
expedient of sec. 144 Cr. P. C. would now fall flat
on us and the people alike ; but still there was the
Defence of India Act under which we could all be
externed from Champaran. We thought that if the
Government decided upon this course, all of us
would be got out of the way at one stroke. We had
by this time recorded statements of thousands of
tenants and had become acquainted with almost all
the grievances of Champaran. There was hardly any
locality in the whole District from which some
tenants had not come to us and given their state-
ments. There was no factory in the whole District
with whose doings and activities we had not become
familiar. If we were all removed together, it was
just possible that the statements which we had re-
corded and the documentary evidence that we had

MAHATMA GANDHI AT BETTIAH 129

collected might be lost or might become useless. We
knew that if we were removed, another batch of
workers would come and take our places but the
fresh batch would have to collect the same evidence
anew and it was just possible that it might not get
the documents 'with the ease and quickness with
which we had got them. Then again the new batch
would be wholly unacquainted with Champaran and
its conditions. Mahatmaji discussed all this with us
for a pretty long time. It was suggested by some of
us that several copies should be made of the docu-
ments and the statements and complete sets of such
copies should be kept in various places so that the
new batch might get hold of at least one such set and
even if the Government forfeited the copy in their
possession, some copy might still be available some-
where. After considering all this Mahatmaji said
that the Government might deal with us as it liked,
but it would be an act of supreme folly on its part
to forfeit or to destroy the evidence we had collected,
and it would never do any such thing, because if the
Government destroyed that evidence then any state-
ment that we who had collected the evidence might
make would have to be accepted, and Government
would expose itself to attack on all sides without
gaining anything. But as a precautionary measure
it was desirable to have more than one copy of all
our papers.* We went on discussing all this till late
at night. The same evening after 8 p.m. Mr. Lewis
sent a report which he was submitting to the Gov-
ernment to Mahatmaji for his perusal asking him at
the same time to send any note of his own regarding
the subject matter of the report. Mahatmaji returned
the report with his note the same night.

130 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

On 30th April, 1917, Mahatmaji went to Sathi
factory and met its Manager Mr. C. Still. There he
also met Mr. Gordon Canning the Manager of the
Parsa Factory. He had a long conversation with
them. After hearing the statements of some tenants
Mahatmaji returned to Bettiah by the evening train.

On the 1st of May, Mahatmaji went to Motihari,
accompanied by Babu Brajakishore. On the second
May there 'was a meeting of planters. Many of the
planters attended it. 'They invited Mahatmaji also.
There was a long talk on various matters ; but no-
thing came out of it. On the 3rd May Mahatmaji
after seeing Mr. Heycock, the District Magistrate and
Mr. Sweeney, the Settlement Officer, returned to Bet-
tiah.

The Bihar Government was not out of touch
with the progress of events in Champaran. The local
officers were sending no doubt highly coloured re-
ports. The planters also sent their representatives
on deputation to lay their complaints before the Gov-
ernment. The European Defence Association of
Muzaffarpur induced its parent Association in Cal-
cutta to make a representation to the Government of
India in which they asked that Mahatma Gandhi's
enquiry should be stopped. But if the Government
did not want to do that it should appoint a Commis-
sion of its own. It seems that when the planters did
not feel satisfied with the result of the conversation
that they had with Mahatmaji on the 2nd May, they
began to take these steps. Mahatmaji used to in-
form the planters and the Government officials of all
that he was doing. On the other hand the planters
were doing all this secretly and no news of it was
allowed to reach him. As a result of this deputation,

INTERVIEW WITH MR. MAUDE 131

a telegram was received by Mahatmaji from the Chief
Secretary to the Government from Ranchi on 6th
May, 1917, informing him that the Hon'ble Mr. W
Maude would be going to Patna on the 10th May
and requesting Mahatmaji to meet him there. We
thought that the Government was going to take some
action ; but we did not expect that it would stop the
enquiry. The rush of tenants went on increasing.
Volunteers from various districts of Bihar had come
to assist in the work and it was going on smoothly.
At intervals the leaders of Bihar also used to come.
On the 5th May Babu Parameshwarlal, Bar-at-Law,
came to Bettiah from Patna and stayed there for
several days.

12
INTERVIEW WITH THE HON'BLE MR. MAUDE

On the morning of the 9th May, 1917 Mahatmaji
accompanied by Babu Brajakishore started for Patna
to have an interview with Mr. Maude. The news that
Mahatmaji would travel by that train had spread and
at every station there was a crowd of people waiting
to see him raising the usual cry of Jai and showering
flowers on him. Mahatmaji reached Patna at 7 o'clock
in the evening. It was raining hard at the time. But
in spite of the rain there was a large crowd waiting
at the station. Almost all the leaders of Patna and
several thousands of people had come to welcome
him. Mahatmaji stopped at the house of Mr. Maz-
harul-Haque.

On the 10th May, Mahatmaji had an interview
with Mr. Maude for about two hours. On the pre-

132 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

vious day Mr. Maude had already met Mr. Heycock,
the District Magistrate of Champaran, Mr. Whitty,
the Manager of Bettiah Raj and Mr. Lewis, the Sub-
divisional Magistrate of Bettiah. We do not know
what talk took place between Mahatmaji and Mr.
Maude. But it seems that the planters had poisoned
the ears of the Government and made serious charges
against Mahatmaji's assistants. They had urged
before the Government that the pleaders who were
working with Mahatmaji were the root of all mischief
and they should be removed from Champaran with-
out delay. The reader must remember that Babu
Brajakishore's name was not unknown to them on
account of his activities in the Bihar Council in
favour of the tenants. When Mahatmaji met Mr.
Maude, after talking about other matters, Mr. Maude
insisted that Mahatmaji should remove his pleader
assistants from Champaran. Mahatmaji assured Mr.
Maude that those who were associated with him were
not in any way against the Government or likely to
cause any disturbance and he altogether refused to
comply with this desire of the Government. It was
however agreed that Mahatmaji would submit a re-
port of his enquiry as soon as possible and that
method of enquiry should now change, but that it
should not be stopped.

On ll-5-'17 Mahatmaji returned to Bettiah and
began to prepare his report as desired by Mr. Maude.
On 12-5-17 a report comprising the main heads of
grievances of the tenants was prepared on the basis
of the evidence recorded. It is necessary to quote
that report verbatim so that the readers might judge
for themselves how each one of these complaints was
proved to be true before the Agrarian Committee.

INTERVIEW WITH MR. MAUDE 133

Copies of this report were also sent to the Govern-
ment officers in the District, the Manager of the Bet-
tiah Raj and Secretary of the Planters' Association.
The report was as follows :

" In accordance with the suggestion made by
Hon'ble Mr. Maude, I beg to submit herewith the
preliminary conclusions which I have arrived at as
a result of the enquiry being made by me into the
agrarian conditions of the ryots of Champaran.

" At the outset I would like to state that it
was not possible for me to give the assurance which
Mr. Maude would have liked me to have given, viz.,
that the vakil friends who have been assisting me
would be withdrawn. I must confess that this re-
quest has hurt me deeply. It has been made ever
since my arrival here. I have been told, i.e., after
the withdrawal of the order of removal from the
District, that my presence was harmless enough
and that my bona fides were unquestioned, but that
the presence of the vakil friends was likely to
create " a dangerous situation ". I venture to sub-
mit that if I may be trusted to conduct myself
decorously I may be equally trusted to choose help-
ers of the same type as myself. I consider it a
privilege to have the association in the difficult task
before me of these able, earnest and honourable
men. It seems to me that for me to abandon them
is to abandon my work. It must be a point of
honour with me not to dispense with their help
until anything unworthy is proved against them
to my satisfaction. I do not share the fear that
either my presence or that of any friends can
create a "dangerous situation 7 '. The danger, if
any, must be in the causes that have brought about

134 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

the strained relation between the planters and the
ryots. And if the causes were removed, there never
need be any fear of a " dangerous situation " aris-
ing in Champaran so far as the ryots are concerned.
" Coming to the immediate purpose of this
representation I beg to state that nearly 4,000 ryots
have been examined and their statements taken
after careful cross-examination. Several villages
have been visited and many judgments of courts
studied. And the enquiry is in my opinion capable
of sustaining the following conclusions.

" Factories or concerns in the District of
Champaran may be divided into two classes :

" (1) Those that have never had indigo plan-
tation and (2) Those that have.

" (1) The concerns that have never grown
indigo have exacted abwabs known by various
local names equal in amount at least to the rent
paid by the ryots. This exaction, although it has
been held to be illegal, has not altogether stopped.

" (2) The indigo growing factories have grown
indigo either under the tinkathia system or khuski.
The former has been most prevalent and has caused
the greatest hardship. The type has varied with
the progress of time. Starting with indigo it has
taken in its sweep all kinds of crops. It may now
be defined as an obligation presumed to attach to
the ryot's holding whereby the ryot has to grow
a crop on 3/20th of the holding at the will of the
landlord for a stated consideration. There appears
to be no legal warrant for it. The ryots have always
fought against it and have only yielded to force.
They have not received adequate consideration for

INTERVIEW WITH MR. MAUDE 135

the services. When, however, owing to the intro-
duction of synthetic indigo the price of the local
product fell, the planters desired to cancel the
indigo sa$as. They, therefore, devised a means of
saddling the Josses upon the ryots. In lease-hold
lands they made the ryots pay tawan i.e. dama-
ges to the extent of Rs. 100 per bigha in considera-
tion of their waiving their right to indigo
cultivation. This, the ryots claim, was done under
coercion. Where the ryots could not find cash,
handn^tes and mortgage deeds were made for pay-
ment in instalments bearing interest at 12 per cent
per annum. In these the balance due has not been
described as tawan, i. e. damage, but it has been
fictitiously treated as an advance to the ryot for
some purpose of his own.

"In mokarrari land the damages have taken the
shape of sharahbeshi sattas, meaning enhancement
of rent in lieu of indigo cultivation. The enhance-
ment according to the survey report has in the case
of 5,955 tenancies amounted to Rs. 31,062, the pre-
enhancement figure being Rs. 53,865. The total
number of tenancies affected is much larger. The
ryots claim that these sattas were taken from them
under coercion. It is inconceivable that the ryots
would agree to an enormous perpetual increase in
their Itents against freedom from liability to grow
indigo for a temporary period, which freedom they
were strenuously fighting to secure and hourly ex-
pecting.

" Where tawan has not been exacted the fac-
tories have forced the ryots to grow oats, sugarcane
or such other crop under the tinkathia system.
Under the tinkathia system the ryot has been

136 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

obliged to give his best land for the landlord's
crops ; in some cases the land in front of his house
has been so used ; he has been obliged to give his
best time and energy also to it so thaj very little
time has been left to him for growiijg his own crops
his means of livelihood.

" Cart-hire sattas have been forcibly taken from
the ryots for supplying carts to the factories on
hire insufficient even to cover the usual outlay. In-
adequate wages have been paid to the ryots where
labour has been impressed and even boys l&f tender
age have been made to work against their will.

" Ploughs of the ryots have been impressed and
detained by the factories for days together for
ploughing factory lands for a trifling consideration
and at a time, when they have required them for
cultivating their own lands.

"Dasturi has been taken by the notoriously
ill-paid factory amlas out of the wages received by
the labourers often amounting to the fifth of their
daily wages and also out of the hire paid for the
carts and in some villages the Chamars have been
forced to give up to the factories the hides of the
dead cattle belonging to the ryots. Against the
carcasses the Chamars used to supply the ryots
with shoes and leather strap for ploughs, and their
women had to render services to the^ latter's
families at childbirth. Now they have ceased to
render these valuable services. Some factories
have for the collection of such hides opened hide-
godowns.

" Illegal fines, often of heavy amounts have
been imposed by factories upon ryots who have
proved unbending.

INTERVIEW WITH MR. MAUDE

" Among the other (according to the evidence
before me) methods adopted to bend the ryots to
their will the planters have impounded the ryot's
cattle, posted peons on their houses, withdrawn
from them barkers', dhobis ', carpenters' and smiths'
services,, have prevented the use of village wells
and pasture lands by ploughing up the pathway
and the lands just in front of or behind their home-
steads, have brought or promoted civil suits or
criminal complaints against them and resorted to
actual physical force and wrongful confinements.
The planters have successfully used the institu-
tions of the country to enforce their will against
the ryots and have not hesitated to supplement
them by taking the law in their own hands. The
result has been that the ryots have shown an
abject helplessness, such as I have not witnessed
in any part of India where I have travelled.

" They are members of District Board and As-
sessors under the Chaukidari Act and keepers of
pounds. Their position as such has been felt by
the ryots. The roads which the latter pay for at
the rate of half an anna per rupee of rent paid by
them are hardly available to them. Their carts and
bullocks which perhaps most need the roads are
rarely allowed to make use of them. That this is
not peculiar to Champaran does not in any way
mitigate the grievance. I am aware that there are
concerns which form exceptions to the rule laid
down but as a general charge the statements
made above are capable of proof.

" I am aware, too, that there are some Indian
Zamindars who are open to the charges made
above. Relief is sought for in their cases as in

138 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

those of the planters. Whilst there can be no
doubt that the latter have inherited a vicious sys-
tem, they with their trained minds and superior
position have rendered it to an exact science, so
that the ryots would not only have been unable to
raise their heads above water but would have sunk
deeper still had not the Government granted some
protection. But that protection has been meagre
and provokingly slow and has often come too late
to be appreciated by the ryots.

" It is true that the Government await the Set-
tlement Officer's report on some of these matters
covered by this representation. It is submitted that
when the ryots are groaning under the weight of
oppression such as I have described above, an en-
quiry by the Settlement Officer is a cumbersome
method. With him the grievances mentioned here-
in are but an item in an extensive settlement ope-
ration. Nor does his enquiry cover all the points
raised above. Moreover grievances have been set
forth which are not likely to be disputed. And
they are so serious as to require an immediate
relief.

"That tawan and sharahbeshisattas and ab-
wabs have been exacted cannot be questioned. I
hope it will not be argued that the ryots can be
fully protected as to these by recourse to law. It
is submitted that where there is wholesale exac-
tion, courts are not sufficient protection for the
ryots and the administrative protection of the Sir-
car as the supreme landlord is an absolute neces-
sity.

" The wrongs are twofold. There are wrongs
which are accomplished facts and wrongs which

INTERVIEW WITH MR. MAUDE

continue. The continuing wrongs need to be stop-
ped at once and small enquiry may be made as to
past wrongs such as damages and abwabs already
taken and sharahbeshi payment already made.
The ryots should be told by proclamation and
notices distributed broadcast among them that
they are not only not bound to pay abwabs, tawan
and sharahbeshi charges but that they ought not
to pay them, that the Sircar will protect them if
any attempt is made to enforce payment thereof.
They should further be informed that they are not
bound to render any personal services to their
landlords and that they are free to sell their ser-
vices to whomsoever they choose and that they are
not bound to grow indigo, sugarcane or any other
crop unless they wish to do so and unless it is pro-
fitable for them. The Bettiah Raj leases given to
the factories should not be renewed until the
wrongs are remedied and should, when renewed,
properly safeguard ryots' rights.

"As to dasturi it is clear that better paid and
educated men should substitute the present hold-
ers of responsible offices and that no countenance
should be given to the diminution in ryots' wages
by illegal exaction of dasturi. I feel sure that the
planters are quite capable of dealing with the evil
although it is in their language ' as old as the
Himalayas '.

" The ryots being secured in their freedom it
would be no longer necessary to investigate the
question of inadequacy or otherwise of the con-
sideration in the indigo sattas and cart-hire sattas
and the wages. The ryots by common agreement
should be advised to finish indigo or other crops

140 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

for the current year. But henceforth whether it is
indigo or any other crop it should be only under a
system of absolute free will.

" It will be observed that I ha,ve burdened the
statement with as little argument as possible. But
if it is the desire of the Government that I should
prove any one of my conclusions I shall be pleased
to tender the proofs on which they are based.

" In conclusion I would like to state that I have
no desire to hurt the planters' feeling. I have re-
ceived every courtesy from them. Believing as I
do that ryots are labouring under a grievous wrong
from which they ought to be freed immediately, I
have dealt as calmly as is possible for me to do so,
with the system which the planters are working. I
have entered upon my mission in the hope that
they as Englishmen born to enjoy the fullest per-
sonal liberty and freedom will not fail to rise to
their status and will not be grudging the ryots the
same measure of liberty and freedom.

u I am sending copies to the Commissioner of
the Tirhut Division, the Collector of Champaran, the
Sub-Divisional Officer of Bettiah, the Manager of
the Bettiah Raj, the secretaries respectively of the
Bihar Planters' Association and the District Plant-
ers' Association. I am circulating also among those
leaders of public opinion in the country who have
kept themselves in touch with the work being done
by my colleagues and myself. The copies are being
marked " not for publication ", as there is no desire
to invite a public discussion of the question unless
it becomes absolutely necessary.

CONSTERNATION AMONGST PLANTERS

" I need hardly give the assurance that I am at
the disposal of the Government whenever my pre-
sence may be required.

I remain,
Yours faithfully,
M. K. GANDHI "

13
CONSTERNATION AMONGST PLANTERS

After M^ahatmaji's return from Patna a change
,was introduced in the method of recording the state-
ments. Till then we used to record the entire state-
ments of the tenants and as a matter of fact we had
so far recorded such statements of about 4,000
tenants. On the basis of these statements we pre-
pared a list of the heads of grievances and it was nof
necessary to record any more statements in full.
Henceforward we made a precis note of their state-
ments. This lightened our labour to some extent
and we were able to give time to fully study and
analyse the evidence so far collected.

The planters on the other hand were very much
perturbed and were trying to put obstacles in the
way of Mahatmaji at every step. But the temper
of tfye tenants was altogether changed and they were
not likely to be cowed down by a show or threat of
force on the part of the factory. The tenants who
had been oppressed for hundred years or more began
to realize that if they did not get their freedom on
this occasion, they would continue in their bondage
for ever. The boldness and the work of Mahatmaji in-
spired them with courage. They were no more likely
to be deterred from coming to him.

142 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

On the upper floor of the dharamshala at Bet-
tiah there was a small room. Mahatmaji occupied it,
while his assistants used to stay on the ground-floor
where they used to record statements or to do other
things. The crowd of tenants usetf to be so large
that it was difficult to work. The outer gate used to
be closed. Only 'those tenants used to be taken to
Mahatmaji whose statements contained something
unusual or an interview with whom was considered
necessary. The tenants however did not rest satis-
fied with giving their statements. They would not
return home without having a darshan of Mahatmaji,
The gate used therefore to be opened every after-
noon and they were allowed to go up to the extensive
roof of the dharamshala which used to be filled up
in no time. When the gate was opened, it was diffi-
cult for some time on account of the rush of tenants
to go up or down by the stair-cases.

Mahatmaji had fully understood the significance
of the hue and cry raised by the planters and he used
to take such steps as he thought necessary to coun-
teract Jtheir tactics. He used occasionally to send
all available information to Government officials and
kept most of the prominent leaders of the country in-
formed of what was happening in Champaran. He
used occasionally to send reports to them of the
work done and to ask them to give such assistance
as the occasion demanded or to keep themselves in
readiness to render him assistance when called upon
to do so. At the same time not one of these bulletins
or reports or any of the facts mentioned therein was
ever allowed to be published in newspapers. The
reason was plain. Mahatmaji was anxious to redress
the grievances of the tenants, not to create any

CONSTERNATION AMONGST PLANTERS 143

agitation. In spite of this precaution, however, the
planters left no stone unturned to hamper his work
so that they might not be deprived of their ill-gotten
profit derived principally from oppression of the
tenants.

On receipt of Mahatmaji's report, the Govern-
ment called for reports on the same from the District
officers, the Settlement Officer and the planters be-
fore the 30th of June, 1917. It was not to be sup-
posed, however, that during this period there was to
be plain-sailing. How could the planters keep quiet
over this matter ? On the 16th of May a telegram of
the Associated Press, stated that a part of the Olaha
factory which was one of the branches of the Tur-
kaulia factory had been burnt, causing a loss of seve-
ral thousands to the factory and that the planters
suspected it to be a case of incendiarism.

There is a factory called Dhokraha at a short
distance from Bettiah. The manager of that factory
Mr. A. K. Holttum had told Mahatmaji that his
tenants had no complaints against him and had in-
vited Mahatmaji to see some of his villages. He had
said the same thing to Mr. Lewis also. It was ar-
ranged that Mahatmaji would visit a place called
Sarisawa. It is necessary to remind the readers that
Mr. Holttum is the gentleman against whom the com-
plaint of the tenants was that instead of taking
enhancement agreements from them he had settled
small bits of zerait land and had added to the rent
of those bits the entire amount of enhancement to
which he considered himself entitled.

On the morning of the 16th May, Mahatmaji
started for Dhokraha accompanied by the writer and

144 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

Professor Kripalani, whose services had been dis-
pensed with by the Muzaffarpur College and who
had joined our party to assist Mahatmaji in his Cham-
paran work. We started very early from Bettiah. We
had conveyances but decided to walk. We reached
Sarisawa bazaar which is about 8 miles from Bettiah,
at about 8 a.m. A large number of tenants had as-
sembled even before our arrival. On our way some
tenants told us that the manager had arranged to
bring a number of men with him who would come
fully tutored to say that the tenants were quite con-
tented, that they had no grievances whatsoever, etc.
etc.

On arrival there Mr. Holttum also arrived. We
all met in a small orchard. About 300 tenants were
there. While Mahatmaji and Mr. Holttum were
talking Mr. Lewis also arrived in his car. Mr. Holt-
tum showed some papers to Mahatmaji and told him
that complaint against him regarding enhancement
was totally false, that he had settled his zerait lands
with tenants on account of their persistent demand ;
that by so settling his zerait he was not a gainer,
rather he could earn more from those lands than he
got as rent for them and that the tenants were at
liberty to surrender them if they so desired. He also
said that there were many tenants who were per-
fectly satisfied with the management of the factory,
and that a few tenants who might have complained
to Mahatmaji must have done so under instigation
from others. After saying this he referred to an old
cultivator aged 70 or 80 years and said that he was
the most respected tenant in the whole locality. He
asked Mahatmaji to listen to what he had to say.
Mahatmaji asked the old man, " Have you any trouble

CONSTERNATION AMONGST PLANTERS 145

with the factory ? " He said at once, " No, sir ! All
the people are perfectly happy under the factory and
they get all kinds of advantage from it." He added
that the people had willingly taken settlement of the
zerait lands. No sooner had he said this than the
entire body of tenants present there began to fret
and fume with rage and indignation. They began to
shout, " This* man is a traitor ; he is a partisan of the
factory ; the sahib had tutored him ; " and addressing
the old man they said, " Why are you in this old age
adding to your burden of sin by your falsehoods. Your
time is now nearly up ; remember God at least now
and speak the truth." There was such a hubbub
created there that it took a little time to restore quiet,
About 15 more tenants made statements similar to
that of the old man. Thereafter Mahatmaji enquired
of the other tenants and they repudiated what had
been said by the old man. Mahatmaji told them that
he had been informed by the manager that they had
taken hundu settlements willingly and that if they
did not like the zerait land they were at liberty to
surrender it. No sooner had he said this than all
the tenants shouted out in one voice, " We surrender
the zerait lands, we don't want them, let the sahib
cultivate what he can on them, we have no objec-
tion." This very much perturbed Mr. Holttum and
he said, " If they do not like this he would make
them grow indigo." Mahatmaji smiled and said,
" Just a minute ago you had said that hunda settle-
ment had no connection whatsoever with indigo and
that by cultivating the zerait lands you would be
able to make more profit than you were now getting.
In these circumstances it is a matter both of profit
and good name to you if you take back these lands,

146 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

and release the tenants from what they evidently
consider to be a burden/' Mr. Holttum only replied,
" After all I have also to live."

The tenants had become so bold and fearless that
they began to complain against Mr. Lewis in his pre-
sence. It was an extraordinary thing for Champa-
ran. Who could have said before Mahatmaji's visit
that the tenant of Champaran who usSd to conceal
himself at the very sight of the factory Jamadar, who
used to suffer all kinds of disgrace and oppression
silently for fear of more and worse oppression coming
if he complained about it, would in this way accuse
the factory manager and the Sub-divisional Magis-
trate in their very faces ? We were all much struck
by this change.

After the Sub-divisional Magistrate and Mr.
Holttum had left, Mahatmaji asked us to take down
the names of those who wished to surrender their
hunda lands. We went on doing this upto the even-
ing and still we could not finish it. We started from
there at about 6 p.m. Mr. Holttum had enquired of
Mahatmaji if he would have any objection to using
his carriage. Mahatmaji accepted the offer after
some hesitation and we returned in his carriage. We
reached Bettiah at about 9 p.m.

Dhokraha and Loheria are two adjoining facto-
ries belonging to the same proprietor and Mr. Holt-
tum was their manager. He used to live generally
at Loheria. There was a great rush of tenants from
these two factories at Bettiah on 17-5-17. They came
to surrender their hunda lands. Their names were
taken down. Those of them who could read and
write were asked to put down their signatures, while
the thumb impression of illiterate persons was taken.

CONSTERNATION AMONGST PLANTERS 147

Mahatmaji wrote a letter to Mr. Holttum, detailing
all that had happened and he also sent the names
of these tenants who had surrendered their lands.
The readers must know that the entire rent for that
current year had been already realized and in some
of those lands* there were crops standing; but the
tenants were so anxious to surrender these zerait
lands and to get rid of this hunia settlement that
they surrendered their lands to the factory with the
crops standing on them. About 500 tenants surren-
dered their zerait lands in this way within two days.
On the night of 18-5-' 17 fire broke out in one of
the houses of Dhokraha factory and it was burnt.
The tenants came running to Mahatmaji and inform-
ed him that the factory people themselves had set
fire to the factory to create an excuse for oppressing
them. Mahatmaji immediately deputed Babu Vin-
dhyabasiniprasad to proceed to the spot to find out
the truth after a thorough inspection and local in-
quiry. His report and the statements of the tenants
were sent to the Government authorities.

We believe that the fire * was not due to the
tenants. We knew that whatever the cause of the
fire might be the planters would create a great noise
about it. After reading the Associated Press message
about the Olaha factory, Mahatmaji had written the
following letter to Mr. Heycock on the 14th of May :

* This book was written in 1919. Since then I have had a
confession from the man who was employed to burn this fac-
tory. The plan according to him was to burn the factory at
midnight, to rush to the authorities, get large body of armed
police immediately and, if possible, to have the whole village
looted. The plan failed because the man who was entrusted
with the cipher message could not deliver it in time.

148 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMP ARAN

" Dear Mr. Heycock,

" I beg to refer you to the enclosed. All kinds
of rumour have come before me. Pressure is being
put upon me to make a statement. But I do not
want to make any unauthorized statement. Will
you kindly let me know for purposes of publica-
tion the damage caused by the fire, the nature of the
out-work burnt, whether it was inhabited or other-
wise protected and whether any connection has
been shown between my presence in Champaran
and the fire ?

" I am sending a special messenger who will
await answer.

Bettiah, Yours sincerely,

14th May, 1917 M. K. Gandhi "

Mr. Heycock replied as follows :

" Dear Mr. Gandhi,

" Your letter of the 14th May, 1917. I am able to give
you the following information :

" Olaha factory is an out-work of the Turkaulia concern.
The buildings burnt down were the engine room, press
house and cake-house. The value of the building has been
roughly estimated at Rs. 20,000 but this is only a rough
estimate. No manager or asst. manager is in residence
at the out-work. There are, however, factory servants to
look after the buildings. The out-work is situated about
20 miles south east of Motihari.

" The fact that the buildings were burnt down shortly
after you came to the district and that your visit of enquiry
has caused considerable excitement etc., may possibly ac-
count for the rumours of all kinds which you say have
come before you.

Motihari, Yours sincerely,

18th May, 1917 W. B. Heycock "

CONSTERNATION AMONGST PLANTERS 149

At about 10 p.m. on the 17th of May, Mahatmaji
was discussing some matters with us, when a man
who called himself part-proprietor of a village Par-
sauni came to us. He said that his other co-sharers
had leased out .their shares to a factory, but he was
not willing to lease out his share. The factory was,
therefore, very much annoyed with him and putting
him to all kinds of trouble. He had a small house
in the village which was going to be looted on the
following day. Mahatmaji at once deputed Professor
Kripalani and the writer to proceed to the place to
make an enquiry. The Police Sub-Inspector was also
informed so that he might accompany us if he so
desired. We started the same night. The village is
about 30 or 35 miles from Bettiah and 8 or 9 miles
from the nearest railway station. We alighted from
the train at about 8 o'clock next morning and reach-
ed Parsauni at about 10 o'clock. The Sub-Inspector
of Police of Bettiah did not accompany us. But he
sent information to the Thana within whose juris-
diction the village was. The Sub-Inspector of the
latter place arrived at the spot soon after us. We
examined a large number of tenants. The Sub-
Inspector was present all along. After completing
our enquiry and having talked to the people we
started late in the evening and we reached the rail-
way station at 11 p.m. and returned to Bettiah the
following morning at 9.

The planters as well as the local officials were
very much upset by all these activities and the pic-
ture of a serious disturbance which Mr. Lewis had
drawn from his imagination became still more deeply
coloured by these and the incidents that had taken
place at Sarisawa bazaar. The planters and their

150 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

supporters were trying their level best to show that
Mahatmaji's work in Champaran was fraught with
mischief and to have him and his co-workers remov-
ed from the District. At the same time they were
trying to put pressure on the tenants to prevent them
from coming to Mahatmaji.

On the 20th of May, 1917, Mahatmaji wrote a
letter to the Dist. Magistrate Mr. Heycock and sent
along with it the statements of tenants of Dhokraha
and Belwa factories. It is worthwhile quoting the
letter in full as it shows Mahatmaji's method of work,
his unflinching determination, firm faith in the jus-
tice of the cause and above all his principle of self-
suffering and non-violence. The letter was as fol-
lows :

" Dear Mr. Heycock, ,

" I have hitherto refrained from bringing to
your notice statements which have continued to
stream in to the effect that the ryots are being pre-
vented from coming in to me and that those who
have come in have been subjected to all kinds of
pin-pricks by the Kothi Amals and in some cases
by the managers themselves. I have discounted
some of the statements. I have taken down a few.
But if what I have heard about the doings of the
Belwa and Dhokraha concerns is true, it is calcu-
lated to end on one side at least the friendly spirit
in which the inquiry has hitherto been carried on.
I am most anxious to continue and to increase the
friendly spirit. I am straining every nerve so far
as in me lies to so conduct my mission that nothing
but good-will should be left behind, when its
labours are finished. I send you the statements

CONSTERNATION AMONGST PLANTERS

taken regarding the Belwa and Dhokraha concerns.
If the statements are true they do not reflect
any credit upon the concerns in question. I
enclose too my letter to Mr. Holttum which was
written before I heard of the fire and which was
Despatched before I took the statements of the
Dhokraha men last evening after 6 p.m.

" I understand and even appreciate the feelings
which are bound to fill those who are called upon
to contemplate the prospect of having to forego
huge incomes which they have hitherto been in the
habit, for a long time, of receiving from their, ryots.
One cannot therefore mind any legitimate effort
on their part to hold on to what they have con-
sidered as their right. But what is reported to have
happened at the Belwa and Dhokraha dehats does
not, in my opinion, fall under such category.

"It is a well-known fact that the desire of
the planters generally is that my friends and I
should not carry on our work. I can only say that
nothing but physical force from the Government
or an absolute guarantee that the admitted or pro-
vable wrongs of the ryots are to stop for ever, can
possibly remove us from the District. What I have
seen of the condition of the ryots is sufficient to
convince me tl\at if we withdraw at this stage, we
would stand condemned before man and God and,
what is more important of all, we would never be
able to forgive ourselves.

" But the mission is totally of peace. I cannot
too often give the assurance that I bear no ill-will
against the planters. I have been told that that is
true of myself but my friends are fired with an
anti-English feeling and that for them it is an

152 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

anti-English movement. I can only say that I do
not know a body of men who have less of that feel-
ing than my friends. I was not prepared for the
pleasant revelation. I was prepared for some degree
of ill-will. I would have held it excusable. I do
not know if I have not been guilty of it myself
under circumstances which have appeared to me
most provoking. But if I found that any of my
associates were in the conduct of this mission ac-
tuated by any ill-will at all, I should dissociate
myself entirely from them and insist upon their
leaving the mission. At the same time the deter-
mination to secure freedom for the ryots from the
yoke that is wearing them down is inflexible.

" Cannot the Government secure that free-
dom ? This is a natural exclamation. My answer
is that they cannot, in cases like this, without such
assistance as is afforded to them by my mission.
The Government machinery is designedly slow. It
moves, must move, along the line of least resist-
ance. Reformers like myself who have no other
axe to grind but that of the reform they are hand-
ling for the time being specialize and create a
force which the Government must reckon with.
Reformers may go wrong by being overzealous,
indiscreet or indolent and ignorant. The Govern-
ment may go wrong by being impatient of them or
over-confident of their ability to do without them.
I hope in this case neither catastrophe will take
place and the grievances which I have already sub-
mitted and which are mostly admitted will be
effectively redressed. Then the planters will have
no cause to fear or suspect the mission of which
I have the honour to be in charge and they will

CONSTERNATION AMONGST PLANTERS 153

gladly accept the assistance of volunteers who will
carry on the work of education and sanitation
among the villagers and act as links between them
and the ryots.

" Pray excuse the length of this letter as also
its argumentative character. I could not avoid it,
if I was to place my true position before you. In
bringing the two matters which have necessitated
this communication I have no desire to seek legal
relief. But I ask you to use such administrative
influence as you can to preserve the friendly spirit
which has hitherto prevailed between the kothis
and my friends and myself.

" I do not wish to suggest that the kothis in
question are responsible for the fires. That is the
suspicion of some of the ryots. I have talked to
hundreds of them about the two fires. They say
that the ryots are not responsible for them, that
they have no connection with the mission. I readily
accept the repudiation because we are incessantly
telling the ryots that this is not a mission of vio-
lence or reprisals and that any such thing on their
part can only delay relief. But if the kothis may
not be held responsible for them, they may not
seek to establish a connection between them and
the mission. Fires have taken place before now
and, mission or no mission, they will take place for
ever. Neither party may blame the other without
the clearest possible proofs.

" There is talk too about the life of the plant-
ers being in danger. Surely this cannot be serious
talk. Any way the mission cannot render them less
safe than they are. The character of the mission
is wholly against any such activity. It is designed

154 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

to seek relief by self-suffering, never by doing
violence to the supposed or real wrong-doer. And
this lesson has been inculcated among the ryots in
season and out of season.

" Lastly, there is, I fear, ample proof of inti-
midation such as is described in the statements
hereto attached. Intimidation can only mean more
trouble all round without meaning the slightest re-
lief to the planters in the shape of retention of the
present system.

" I seek such help as you can vouchsafe in the
circumstances, I have ventured to place before you.

Bettiah, Yours sincerely,

20th May, 1927 M. K. Gandhi "

A great hue and cry was raised in the Anglo-
Indian Press. The readers will remember that in
April 1915, Babu Brajakishoreprasad had proposed to
the Government to appoint a Committee of enquiry.
The representative of the planters, Mr. Filgate, had
vehemently opposed the resolution. But in May
1917, the European Defence Association, the great
supporter of the planters, suggested the appointment
of a Commission and the Anglo-Indian papers joined
in a chorus in making a similar demand. On 15-5-'17,
the chief Anglo-Indian paper in Northern India, the
Pioneer whose comments are typical of those of the
Anglo-Indian Press, wrote as follows :

" It appears to us that the Government of Bihar could
do well forthwith to appoint a Commission to investigate
the differences which exist between the planters and the
ryots in the Indigo Districts. It is difficult to see what
good can come of Mr. Gandhi's investigation. But an en-
quiry conducted with strict impartiality by a Commission
containing possibly a non-official element would give both

MAHATMA GANDHI INTERVIEWS THE GOVERNOR 155

sides a fair opportunity of stating their cases and ought
to result in a lasting peace."

14

MAHATMA GANDHI INTERVIEWS
THE GOVERNOR

While, on the one hand, the Pioneer was advising
the appointment of a Committee the planters, on the
other, were poisoning the ears of the Government
about the fires. The result was that on 29th May
1917 Mahatmaji was summoned by the Government
to Ranchi. Sir Edward Gait, the Lieut-Governor
fixed the 4th of June for an interview with him.

We could not quite understand the reason of this
call. The District officers had not yet submitted their
opinions on Mahatmaji's report. The call could not
therefore be for discussing that matter. Then re-
mained the planters and the agitation in the Anglo-
Indian Press, the fire in two factories and the imagi-
nary fear of a disturbance in the minds of local offi-
cers. We apprehended that there must be something
wrong about this call. It was therefore necessary to
proceed cautiously and to be prepared for all even-
tualities. Our party should be well organized and
should be ready to face any untoward turn events
might take. Plainly speaking we suspected that
Mahatmaji might not be allowed to return from
Ranchi. We discussed the future plan of action if
that came to pass. Pandit Madanmohan Malaviya
was wired to come to Patna for consultation. Mahat-
maji wired to his wife who was in Calcutta to
come and meet him at Ranchi. His youngest son

156 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

Devadas Gandhi, who was at the Sabarmati Satya-
graha Ashram was also telegraphed to come to
Ranchi. The writer was deputed to Patna to consult
the leaders there. On the second of June Mahatmaji
reached Patna with Babu Brajakishqre. Pandit Mala-
viya had already arrived on the previous evening. A
conference was held and it was decided that if any
action was taken against Mahatmaji then either Mr.
Haque or Pandit Madanmohan Malaviya would take
charge of the work in Champaran. A programme
similar to that prepared on the 18th of April was
again made. Correspondence with leaders of the
country was started. The same day Mahatmaji and
Babu Brajakishoreprasad left for Ranchi, while Pan-
dit Madanmohan Malaviya returned to Allahabad.

The- planters had left no stone unturned to get
Mahatmaji .and his assistants removed from Cham-
paran and to render his work infructuous. On the
31st May the Muzaffarpur branch of the European
Defence Association passed the following resolutions :

1. That the presence of Mr. Gandhi in his self-impos-
ed mission has been accompanied by unrest and crime.

2. That his continued presence there is likely to be
disastrous to the welfare of the Europeans in Champaran
and the peace of the District.

3. That they request the European Central Associa-
tion in Calcutta to press on The Government the absolute
necessity, if they wish to maintain law and order in Cham-
paran District, to have Mr. Gandhi and his assistants re-
moved from there at once and also that there is great
fear of lawlessness spreading to the neighbouring Districts.

On the 3rd of June, 1917 the Pioneer published
a long letter written by Mr. Irwin, the manager of
the Motihari factory. Mr. Irwin had actually writ-
ten the letter on the 23rd of May, but the Pioneer

MAHATMA GANDHI INTERVIEWS THE GOVERNOR 157

published it on the 3rd of June, just on the eve of
Mahatma Gandhi's interview with the I jieut. -Gover-
nor. It is necessary to say a word or two about
Mr. Irwin here as he wrote several letters to the
Press in connection with the enquiry, about which
we may have to* say something at the proper place.
Mr. W. S. Irwin is an old and powerfuL planter. He
is the manager of the Motihari factory and has been
connected with it for a long time. He was in a way
the pioneer amongst the planters in the matter of
taking enhancement agreements and realizing tawan
from the tenants. He it was who had taken legal
advice about the sharahbeshi (enhancement) and
tawan and carried on correspondence with the Gov-
ernment. It was in his factory that in 1906 trouble
about these things at first arose. It is his boast that
his tenants never go to courts against him. Very
few of his tenants had dared to complain against
sharahbeshi and tawan to the authorities. From
these facts he wants to impress upon others that his
tenants were contented and that there was no trouble.
The tenants, however, have a different tale to tell.
They say that Mr. Irwin's organization is so perfect
and his method so effective that with all their sui ? -
ferings the tenants dare not go to law courts. It was
a patwari of this Mr. Irwin who had told Mahatma ji
that a Sub-Inspector or a Magistrate was nothing as
compared to his Sahib. Mr. Irwin in the letter which
was published in the Pioneer of the 3rd of June, to
show his impartiality in the matter wrote as follows :
" Very occasionally brief paragraphs appear in your
columns alluding to Mr. Gandhi and his so-called mission
in Champaran but it is more than evident you have no
appreciation of the harm he is doing and has already
succeeded in doing.

158 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

" When the local authorities first . became aware of
Mr. Gandhi's threatened visit, they very wisely and cor-
rectly took action to restrain him but, on appeal by him,
this order was upset by the Provincial Government and
Mr. Gandhi was permitted to continue his mischievous
intention. He wanted to go to a village in the Peepra
factory " dihat " and thereby encourage the villagers some
of whom were under trial for severely assaulting the
European Sub-manager, but he was stopped by the police.
Then when detained by the local authorities and awaiting
the order of the Government he occupied himself in Moti-
hari recording the ex parts statements of some hundreds of
Peepra and Turkaulla concern ryots who were induced
by his entourage to come to him. When Government
orders were received revoking the earlier proceedings he
passed on to Bettiah, but his doings in Motihari bore fruit
and shortly after his departure an out-work of the Tur-
kaulia concern was burnt down. I may here say paren-
thetically that of 20,000 ryots (more or less) not a dozen
men attempted to go near Mr. Gandhi, and of these the
majority went out of curiosity pure and simple and no
serious charges of any kind were made. So in this matter
I have no " personal " quarrel with Mr. Gandhi. Naturally
his arrival in the Bettiah Sub-Division was objected to by
both planters and officials and the former sent a deputa-
tion to Ranchi to try to get the Government to put an end
to, or at any rate keep under some control Mr. Gandhi's
activities. This resulted in the local officials and Mr.
Gandhi being summoned by wire to attend a conference
in Bankipore which ended in Mr. Gandhi's being permitted
to return and continue his doings now more uncontrolled
than ever and clothed in the ryots' mind in the garment
of recognition and approval by Government. He visited
a village in the Dhokraha factory "dehat" the ryots of
which in his presence and before the S. D. O. and factory
manager, foully abused in Hindustani the factory head ser-
vant and while Mr. Gandhi was still in the neighbourhood,
but not actually within sight, assaulted and grossly mal-
treated a most respectable old man, who, too aged and infirm
to walk, had to come in a cart to make statements in fac-
tory's favour and finally two days or so later the factory

MAHATMA GANDHI INTERVIEWS THE GOVERNOR 159

office was set fire to and burnt down. There can be no
possible doubt in any reasonable person's mind as to cause
and effects in both this and Turkaulia incident. But
everybody who deserves to be in a position to know,
knows that the whole movement is meretricious and
Champaran has been selected for the exploitation of it for
the following reasons : 1. There is practically only one
proprietor (mahk) in the whole District The Bettiah Court
of Wards estate, i.e., the Local Govermrfent. In Tirhut
and Saran most villages are owned by several small share-
holders, many residents, and an agitator who would venture
to go in there and act, as he has been doing here would
meet with short shrifts. The engineers of the movement
have no desire to get up against the Maharaja of Dar-
bhanga. 2. Champaran with its large community of Euro-
pean Zamindars is eminently the place to start with hopes
of success a class agitation. Mr. Gandhi, I believe, is a
well-intentioned philanthropist but he is a crank and
fanatic and is too utterly obsessed with his partial success
in South Africa and his belief that he has been ordained
by Providence to be a righter of wrongs. To be able
to realize that, he is being made a cat's paw of by (i)
Pleaders and Mukhtears etc., who know that planters settle
free, gratis and for nothing at least 75 per cent, of disputes
among ryots which would otherwise bring grist to their
mills ; (ii) Mahajans and money lenders whose usurious
dealings with ryots have been greatly checked and who
cannot now, owing to the action of the planters, acquire
the debtor's best lands without the consent of the land-
owners and by (iii) Home Rule politicians who hope to
demonstrate on the, for them, happy hunting ground of
Champaran that officials and non-officials go hand in hand
to oppress the population and so to prove that the District
and incidentally all India is being misgoverned under the
British Raj.

" What do these people care for ryots save to make
use of them for their own purpose ? For the protection
of the property of the Champaran planters, one and pro-
bably only one step is essentially necessary and that is the
removal of Mr. Gandhi from the District. The extreme

160 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

forbearance of the planters has so far prevented the out-
break of any very serious disturbance, but unless Govern-
ment can see its way to protecting them they will unavoid-
ably be forced into taking the steps necessary for their
own protection."

It need only be stated about thijS letter that Mr.
Irwin's comment that not a dozen of his tenants had
attempted to go near Mr. Gandhi was wholly un-
founded as we had by that time recorded the state-
ments of some 300 of them.

The Anglo-Indian Press commenting on the
European Defence Association resolutions, attacked
the proposal for a non-official enquiry by " agita-
tors ", called on the Government to suppress their
activities and, if necessary, appoint their own Com-
mission of enquiry. The Indian Press throughout
the country on the other hand, fully supported
Gandhiji in all his activities, pointed to their signifi-
cant implications of planter opposition to the enquiry
and insisted on the enquiry being carried out.

15

THE APPOINTMENT OF THE ENQUIRY
COMMITTEE

While on the one hand this agitation was going
on in the Press,* Sir Edward Gait was holding discus-
sions with Mahatma Gandhi on the other, regarding
the situation in Champaran. We had all taken our
respective places on the 4th June and were every
minute expecting a message from Ranchi. We were
being tossed about by a wave of speculation. Just
as the Government officials had pictured to them-
selves an imaginary disturbance and had been tak-
ing steps to get Mahatma Gandhi and his party
removed from Champaran, even so were we ex-
periencing the effects of an imaginary order of
externment. The feeling was not one of fear, but
of a deep curiosity. The whole of the night of the
4th June was spent by us in these dreams and reve-
ries. On the morning of the 5th, at about 8 o'clock,
a telegraph peon was seen coming and we all ran
towards him. We were all anxious to know what
the telegram contained ; but there was nothing de-
finite in it. It only said, " Today's interview satisfac-
tory, meeting again tomorrow. " We waited the whole
night for it, but none came. The anxiety on this day
was not so keen, nor were we subject to evil thoughts
to the same extent as on the previous day. But there
was no peace of mind. The 6th of June also passed
away in the same condition of suspense. On the 7th
of June we received a telegram from Mahatmaji in-
forming us that he would return from Ranchi on the
8th.

161

162 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

From the 4th to the 6th of June Mahatmaji was
engaged in interviewing Sir Edward Gait and the
members of his Executive Council, as a result of
which, it was decided that an Enquiry Committee
should be appointed and that Mahatma Gandhi
should be one of its members. The names of other
members were also settled at the same time, but as
their consent had not yet been obtained, it was de-
cided not to publish their names until such consent
was obtained. On his way to Ranchi Shrimati Kastur-
bai Gandhi and Shrijut Devadas Gandhi had met him
at Asansol and accompanied him to Ranchi. Mahat-
maji, Shrimati Gandhi, Devadasji and Babu Braja-
kishore arrived at Patna on the morning of the 7th
of June. Pandit Malaviya was already there waiting
for them. After meeting all friends Mahatmaji left
Patna on the morning of the 8th and reached Bettiah
the same afternoon.

The news had already reached Bettiah that
Shrimati Gandhi was coming with Mahatmaji.
There was a large crowd to welcome her at the sta-
tion. She took her residence in another small room.
The Associated Press representative at Patna some-
how managed to get the news in spite of the Govern-
ment prohibition and wired that a Commission was
going to be appointed. This news was published in
the papers of the 8th June. The Government seeing
various inaccuracies in it issued the following com-
munique on the llth of June :

" The attention of the Government of Bihar and Orissa
has been drawn to a communication dated 7th June on the
subject of agrarian situation in Champaran, which ema-
nated from the Bankipore correspondent of the Associated
Press. It was published in several newspapers of June 8th.
The communication was made without the knowledge or

ENQUIRY COMMITTEE APPOINTED

authority of the Local Government and contained various
incorrect and misleading statements. The Local Govern-
ment intend to appoint a Committee to enquire into the
relations existing between the landlords and the tenants of
the Champaran District and will shortly announce its con-
stitution and terms of reference."
On the 13th of June 1917, a Government com-
munique announcing the appointment of a Commit-
tee of enquiry and its personnel was published.

On 31-5-17 when Mahatma Gandhi was going to
Ranchi, we were apprehending many things. On the
8th June, instead of being interned at Ranchi, he re-
turned to Bettiah with his wife, son and co-workers.
What a tremendous change within these 8 days. He
who had been summoned to Sir Edward Gait's pre-
sence almost as an accused, returned on this day as
a member of a committee entrusted with the work of
giving redress to the tenants of Champaran. The
reader may very well ask what the reason of this was.
A real and genuine desire to secure relief for the
tenants and an equally genuine anxiety to avoid any
thought of doing any injury to the planters, a readi-
ness to suffer for his principles and for what he con-
sidered to be his duty, an unalterable faith in the
power of truth and a complete absence of fear from
worldly powers these made such a tremendous
change possible. To hold to these firmly is called
Satya Ircha.

The publication of the news of the Committee
created a great stir among Anglo-Indian papers. In
their issue of the 9th June the Pioneer, the Statesman
and the Englishman said, as if in one voice, that the
only proper course was to remove Mahatma Gandhi
from Champaran, because his presence after the ap-
pointment of the Committee was no longer justified.

164 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

They did not know that Mahatma Gandhi too
was appointed a member of the Committee. On
the 8th of June immediately after the receipt of in-
formation about the appointment of the Committee
Mr. Alec Marsh, the Secretary of, the European
Association of Calcutta, wrote the following letter to
the Government which also throws a flood of light
on the previous activities of his Committee :

" I have the honour to address you by direction of the
Council of the European Association with reference to Mr.
Gandhi's visit in Champaran District and the matters that
have arisen in consequence of his presence. On the 3rd
May Jast, I telegraphed you a copy of a telegram despatch-
ed to the Government of India regarding the grave situa-
tion in the Champaran District and on the 4th Ma}' I for-
warded you a copy of letter No. 1575 addressed to the
Government of India regarding the same matter.

" My Council observe with great satisfaction the deci-
sion of your Government to appoint a Committee to en-
quire and investigate into the relations between landlords
and tenants in the province of Bihar and Orissa.

" My Council are of opinion that the terms of refer-
ence should be as wide as possible, so as to comprise not
merely the questions which have resulted in the appoint-
ment of the Committee but any which have actually proved
a source of trouble in the past or may do hereafter. It
is extremely important that so far as can possibly be now
effected all grievances real and imaginary should be finally
enquired info and removed.

" I am also directed to urge that the enquiry should
be held in public and not in camera. Proceedings of this
nature in camera invariably afford ground for criticism
that there is something to be concealed from the public
or that some person is being shelved. In a matter of this
kind this Council consider that the public should be per-
mitted to form its own opinion.

" My Council desire to impress on your Government
that Mr. Gandhi having completed his self-appointed task

ENQUIRY COMMITTEE APPOINTED

of investigating the relation between the landlords and
the tenants in the Champaran District and having submit-
ted his report to you in his letter of May 13th, there is
no further necessity for his presence in that District. Your
Government are doubtless aware of the grave anxiety ex-
isting among the planting community that serious trouble
may arise at any moment. Also that opinion is generally
hold by the same Committee that the continued presence
of Mr. Gandhi and his entourage in Champaran is likely
to precipitate serious trouble in various directions. My
Council would therefore urge upon the Government as
strongly as possible, that Mr. Gandhi and his entourage
be required by Government to remove themselves from
the Champaran District except in so far as Mr. Gandhi's
presence may be desired* by the proposed Committee."

The Indian Daily News of Calcutta commented
on this letter as follows :

" Now that the Bihar and Orissa Government have de-
cided to appoint a small committee of enquiry to investi-
gate the whole question of relation between the landlord
and the tenant in the Province, it seems impossible that
they can allow a roving Commission to an agitator who
has to make his case good or stand discredited."

Unfortunately for them, however, Mahatma
Gandhi's presence was necessary even for the En-
quiry Committee and the desire of the European Asso-
ciation that the enquiry should commence only after
Mahatrnaji had been removed could not be fulfilled.
It was an irony of fate that the allegations made by
the " roving " Commissioner were eventually found
by the Committee to be true. The Government of
Bihar issued a resolution on 10th of June regarding
the appointment of the Commission and it was pub-
lished in the papers of the 12th June. That resolu-
tion itself shows that the grievances of the tenants
of Champaran were neither new nor were they the
result of the machination of " agitators ". It is

166 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

necessary to quote that resolution in its entirety. It
was as follows :

" (1) On various occasions during the past fifty years
the relations between the landlords and tenants and the cir-
cumstances attending the growing of indigo in the Cham-
paran District have been the cause of considerable anxiety.
The conditions under which indigo was cultivated when
the industry was flourishing required re-adjustment, when
it declined simultaneously with a general rise in the prices
of food grains, and it was partly on this account and partly
owing to other 'local causes that disturbances broke out
in certain indigo concerns in 1908. Mr. Gourlay was depu-
ted by the Government of Bengal to investigate the causes
of the disturbances and his report and recommendations
were considered at a series of conferences presided over by
Sir Edward Baker and attended by local officers of Govern-
ment and representatives of the Bihar Planters' Association.

" The result of these discussions revised the conditions
for the cultivation of indigo in a manner calculated to
remove the grievances of the ryots. The revised condi-
tions were accepted by the Bihar Planters' Association.

" (2) In 1912 a fresh agitation arose connected not so
much with the conditions under which indigo was grown,
as with the action of certain factories which were reducing
their indigo manufacture and taking agreements from their
tenants for the payment in lieu of indigo cultivation of
a lump sum in temporarily leased villages or of an in-
crease of rent in villages under permanent lease. Numer-
ous petitions on the subject were presented from time to
time to the local officers and to the Government and peti-
tions were at the same time filed by ryots of villages in
the north of the Bettiah sub-division in which indigo had
never been grown, complaining of the levy of abwab or
illegal additions to rent, by their lease holders, both Indian
and European. As the issues raised by all these petitions
related primarily to rent and tenancy conditions and as
the revision of settlement of the District was about to be
undertaken in the course of which the relations existing
between the landlords and tenants would come under de-
tailed examination, it was thought advisable to await the

ENQUIRY COMMITTEE APPOINTED

report of the Settlement Officers before passing final orders
on the petitions. The revision settlement was started in
the cold weather of 1913. On the 7th April 1915, a reso-
lution was moved in the local Legislative Council asking
for the appointment of a mixed Committee of officials and
non-officials to, enquire into the complaints of the ryots
and to suggest remedies. It was negatived by a large
majority, including 12 out of 16 non-official members of
the Council present, on the ground that the appointment
of such a Committee at that stage was unnecessary, as the
Settlement Officers were engaged in the decision of the
questions at issue and an additional enquiry of the nature
proposed would merely hlve the effect of further exacer-
bating the relations of landlord and tenant ; which were
already feeling the strain of the settlement operations.

" (3) The settlement operations have been now com-
pleted in the northern portion of the District, and are
approaching completion in the remainder and a mass of
evidence regarding agricultural conditions and the rela-
tions between landlords and tenants has been collected. A
preliminary^ report on the complaints of the tenants in
the leased villages in the north of the Bettiah sub-division
in which no indigo is grown has been received, and action
has already been taken to prohibit the levy of illegal cesses
and in the case of the Bettiah Raj to review the terms of
the leases on which the villages concerned are held. As
regards the complaints of the ryots in other parts of the
District the final report of the Settlement Officer has not
yet been received, but recent events have again brought
into prominence the whole question of the relations be-
tween landlords and tenants, and in particular the taking
of agreements from the ryots for compensation, or for
enhanced rent in return for the abandonment of indigo
cultivation. In these circumstances and in reference to
representations which have been received from various
quarters that the time has come when an enquiry by a
joint body of officials and non-officials might materially
assist the Local Government in coming to a decision on the
problems which have arisen, the Lieut.-Governor In
Council has decided without waiting for the final report

168 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

of the settlement operations to refer the question at issue
to a Committee of Enquiry on which all interests con-
cerned will be represented.

" (4) The following Committee has accordingly been
appointed with the approval of the Government of India:
President : Mr. F. G. Slay, C. S. I., Commissioner Central
Provinces. Members : The Hon'ble Mr. L. C. Adami, I. C. S.,
Superintendent and Remembrancer of Legal Affairs,
B. & O. ; the Hon'ble Raja Hariharprasad Narayansingh, *
Member of the B. & O. Legislative Council ; The Hon'ble
Mr. D. J. Reid, Member of the B. & O. Legislative Council ;
Mr. G. Rainy, I. C. S., Deputy Secretary in the Finance
Department of the Government of India; and Mr. M. K.
Gandhi. Secretary: M. E. L. Tanner I. C. S., Settlement
Officer in South Bihar.

" (5) The duty of the Committee will be (a) to enquire
into the relations between landlords and tenants in Cham-
paran District including all the disputes arising out of the
manufacture and cultivation of indigo ; (b) to .examine the
evidence on these subjects already available, supplement-
ing it by such further enquiry, local and otherwise, as
they may consider desirable, and (c) to report their con-
clusions to the Government stating the measures they re-
commend to remove any abuses or grievances which they
may find to exist.

" The Lieut.-Governor-in-Council desires to leave the
Committee a free hand as to the procedure they will adopt
in arriving at the facts. The Committee will assemble
about the 15th July and will, it is hoped, complete their
labours within three months."
The planters, however, were not at all satisfied

with the appointment of Mahatma Gandhi. Mr. J. V.

Jameson, whose name has already been mentioned,

wrote the following letter which was published in

the Statesman of 22nd June, 1917 :

* It is necessary to state here that on account of the ill-
health of the Hon'ble Raja Hariharprasad Narayansingh,
Raja Krityanandsingh, B. A. of Banaily was appointed in his
place.

ENQUIRY COMMITTEE APPOINTED 169

" With regard to Mr. Gandhi's appointment to the
Committee it is difficult to see what his qualifications for
the post consist of. He is a complete stranger to the Pro-
vince and ignorant of its complicated system of land tenure.
He came to the District frankly prejudiced in his views
on the question while he professed his intention of making
an impartial enquiry. He has spent a considerable time
at the head of a band of agitators who by means of ex-
aggerated stories as to his position and authority have
attempted to induce the ryots to break their agreements
and to ignore the decisions of the Settlement and Civil
Courts and have succeeded in raising a considerable amount
of racial ill-feeling. As his and his colleagues' activities
are very important factors in the present relations between
landlords and tenants they must inevitably come within the
scope of this Committee's enquiry, and it would surely be
more fitting that he should be required to justify his actions
and the statements and recommendations which he has
already submitted to Government, the very point on which
this Committee is required to report, rather than that he
should be put in the ludicrous position of judging his own
case and reporting on the very conclusions and recom-
mendations which he has himself put forward."

The allegation of Mr. Jameson that Mahatma
Gandhi came to Champaran with a prejudice is, of
course, unfounded. Whatever opinion Mahatmaji
formed about Champaran was the result of his obser-
vations and the information which he gathered on
the spot. His preliminary report would show how he
had mastered the situation and the report of the
Enquiry Committee shows that his conclusions were
all literally true.

16
THE SITTING OP THE ENQUIRY COMMITTEE

Between the appointment of the Enquiry Com-
mittee and the commencement of its sittings
Mahatmaji decided to pay a visit to Bombay and his
assistants were also given a few days' holiday to go
home. The Committee was to commence its work
only on the 15th July and after the publication of
the Government resolution, there being no further
need, the work of recording the statements of ryots
was stopped from 12th June. On the 16th of June
Mahatmaji went away to Bombay and his assistants
removed from Bettiah to Motihari and began to sort
the evidence which should be placed before the Com-
mittee. Till then the full statements of more than
8,000 tenants had been recorded under the personal
supervision of Mahatma Gandhi. It has been stated
above that there were 2,841 villages and tenants from
no less than 850 villages had made statements which
were against as many as 60 factories. Over and above
these statements we had collected a large number
of documents many of which were judgments of
Courts. So long as the assistants were engaged in
recording statements, they did not get much time to
study the documents. When the recording of state-
ments was stopped, we began to study the documents
carefully. We had to decide after careful scrutiny
and selection what witnesses and what documents
should be produced before the Committee. Even after
the 12th of June, when we stopped recording state-
ments, tenants continued to come in large numbers.

170

ENQUIRY COMMITTEE AT WORK

They used to be told that no more statements would
be recorded and their grievances would be consider-
ed by the Committee. When the tenants learned that
statements were not recorded, many of them sent their
complaints by jDost. The police continued to bestow
their attention on us even after the appointment of
the Committee. Some police officer made a report
to the Government that statements were being taken
even after the 12th June. This was of course untrue
and Babu Brajakishoreprasad who was in charge of
affair in Mahatmaji's absence repudiated it. All
this kept us engaged for about a fortnight and Mahat-
maji returned from Bombay to Motihari on the 28th
June '17. Mahatmaji brought with himself Dr.
Hari Shrikrishna Deva, the Secretary of the Servants
of India Society to help him in the mission.

On his return Mahatmaji also devoted himself
to the study of the evidence. Before the commence-
ment of the work the Committee was to hold a preli-
minary meeting at Ranchi to settle its programme of
work and such other preliminary matters. Mahat-
maji and Babu Brajakishore accordingly left Motihari
for Ranchi on the 5th July and arrived there on the
7th. The Committee met on the llth July and
Mahatmaji returned to Motihari on the 13th July.
It was settled that the Committee should sit at Bet-
tiah from the 17th July. Bettiah was preferred to
Motihari evidently for the reason that it being the
Headquarters of the Raj, it offered better convenien-
ces for the comforts of the guests who came for the
Committee. . The European members of the Commit-
tee were lodged at the guest-house of the Raj, while
the Rajasaheb of Banaily stayed in the Raj palace.
Mahatmaji and his party took their lodgings at their

172 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

old place, the dharamshala of Babu HazarimaL With
the exception of Mahatmaji, all the members of the
Committee reached Bettiah on the 14th July. It had
been announced that the Committee would hold its
sittings from about the 15th of July at Bettiah, Moti-
hari and other places and any one who wanted to say
anything about Champaran must send his written
note to the secretary of the Committee. This notice
had been published in the newspapers and its copies
were hung up in the Court premises. The tenants of
the whole District had thus come to know that the
enquiry would commence at Bettiah from the 15th
July.

It is difficult to guess what hopes, what appre-
hensions possessed the minds of Champaran tenants.
They instinctively felt on the advent of Mahatmaji
that their grievances would go and when they
saw that even the Government had agreed to
appoint an Enquiry Committee of which Mahatma
Gandhi was to be one of the members, the hope
became doubly confirmed and large crowds of
tenants assembled at Bettiah on the 15th July. In
the streets, in the market place, in the spacious
maidan of the town of Bettiah wherever one turned
one's eyes, one saw groups of tenants. It looked as
if there was to be a big fair. The dharamshala where
Mahatmaji was staying was always full of visitors.

The number of tenants increased on the 16th
and it is estimated that no less than ten thousand
tenants were present at Bettiah on that day. Mahat-
maji was busy studying the papers, supplied by the
Committee ; his assistants were equally busy and had
no time to attend to the tenants, who were anxious
to have a look at Mahatmaji. The Committee could

ENQUIRY COMMITTEE AT WORK 173

not commence its work on the 15th July. Mahatmaji
was anxious that the tenants should not lose heart
in any way. He accordingly came out in the after-
noon of the 16th. As soon as Mahatmaji came out,
the crowd swelled in number and the spacious gar-
den and the compound of the dharamshala were
filled with men. In a short speech, he explained to
them that the Committee had been appointed to re-
dress their grievances, that they should not go in
large numbers to the meeting place of the Committee,
and that if they had to make any complaint they
should do so before Mahatmaji's assistants. Babu
Brajakishoreprasad also explained this matter to
the tenants. After Mahatmaji's speech the. tenants
went back perfectly satisfied.

It has already been said that a notice had been
published inviting intending witnesses to submit
their statements to the Committee. In response to
it the Bihar Planters' Association, the managers of
two factories, 25 tenants, Mr. J. T. Whitty, the Mana-
ger of the Bettiah Raj, Mr. J. A. Sweeney, the Settle-
ment Officer, Mr. E. H. Lewis, the S. D. 6. of Bettiah,
Mr. L. F. Morshead, the Commissioner of the Tirhut
Division, Mr. E. H. Johnstone, an Ex-S. D. O. of Bet-
tiah, submitted statements. The Bihar Planters'
Association had been particularly requested to repre-
sent their case, but they replied that they had no-
thing particular to say.

Examination of witnesses commenced at Bettiah
on the 17th of July. The Committee used to meet in
the hostel of the Bettiah Raj school. On behalf of
the planters Mr. Pringle Kennedy, a well-known
lawyer of Muzaffarpur, was watching the proceed-
ings. Mahatmaji's assistants and tenants were

174 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

admitted to the Committee on tickets. In spite of all
our efforts the crowd did not dimmish. The roads
were full of men. Two of our party were deputed
to maintain order among the crowd. Although
policemen in their uniforms were not much in evi-
dence, they were posted in plain clothes. The Com-
mittee began its proceedings exactly at 11 a.m. The
Associated Press of India, The Amrita Bazar Patrika,
and the Bengalee had deputed their special corres-
pondents to report the proceedings.

Mr. Sweeney was the first witness and his exa-
mination took the whole day. On the 18th July Mr.
Lewis was examined in the fore-noon and Mr. Whitty
in the afternoon. On the 19th July Srijut Rajkumar
Shukla and Sant Raut, who had once been a clerk
under a factory and Khendarprasad Rai were exa-
mined on behalf of the tenants. There was no sitting
of the Committee on the 20th. On the 21st July the
proprietor and Manager of Malahia factory, Mr. W. J.
Ross and Mr. H. Gale, the Manager of the Byreah
factory gave their evidence. On the 23rd July Mr.
C. Still, the Manager of Sathi factory and Mr. A. C.
Ammon, the Manager of the Belwa factory, deposed
before the Committee. The sixth sitting of the
Committee was to take place at Motihari on the 25th
July and Mahatmaji with his assistants accordingly
came to Motihari on the night of the 23rd July.

At Motihari, too, the crowd of tenants was as
large as at Bettiah. The Committee met in the office
of the District Board on the 25th July at 11 a.m. and
examined Mr. W. B. Heycock, the Collector of Cham-
paran, Mr. J. V. Jameson as the representative of the
Planters' Association and Mr. E. H. Hudson, the
Manager of the Rajpore factory. On the 26th July

ENQUIRY COMMITTEE AT WORK 175

Mr. W. S. Irwin, the Manager of the Motihari factory
whom the readers know already was examined. After
Mr. Irwin's examination the members of the Com-
mittee returned to Bettiah. The 27th of July was an
off-day, and on the 28th the members of the Commit-
tee visited and held local enquiry at the Parsa fac-
tory.

It may be added here that no information used
to be given to tenants about the visit of the Commit-
tee to their villages so that the " agitator " might not
get an opportunity, as alleged by the planters, of
tutoring the people of the locality visited by the Com-
mittee. The fact is there was nothing to tutor them
about. In whichever direction the motor cars carry-
ing the members turned a crowd collected and the
moment they reached any particular factory, the
news of their arrival spread with electric speed and
thousands and thousands of tenants assembled in no
time. The factory managers used to be informed be-
forehand so that they might keep their papers, re-
gisters etc. in readiness for inspection by the
Committee. The Committee visited the Kuria factory
and its villages on the 29th July. During these visits
the papers of the factory used to be perused, state-
ments of planters recorded and tenants examined. It
is believed that what the members saw and heard
during these tours made a deep impression on them.

The Committee met at Bettiah on the 30th July
and on that day Mr. P. Granville, the Manager of the
Madhubani factory and Mr. W. W. Broucke, its pro-
prietor, were examined. Some members of the Com-
mittee visited some villages of Malahia factory and
examined its papers. Similarly on the 21st local

176 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

inspection was held in the villages of Dhokraha fac-
tory. On the night of the 31st Mahatmaji with some
of his assistants went to Motihari. The 1st of August
was again an off-day and on the 2nd the Committee
visited the Rajpore factory. Mr. Hudson, its Mana-
ger, had informed his tenants of the visit, and about
5 to 6 thousand of people had assembled there. On
the 3rd of August the Peepra factory was inspected
and 'on the 4th the Committee visited Turkaulia. At
these factories too 3 to 4 thousand people were pre-
sent. On the same day Mahatmaji saw Mr. Irwin at
his factory and on the 5th he visited a village of his
named Rajpur Chhitali, with his consent and return-
ed to Bettiah by the afternoon train. On the 6th
Rajghat Hardia factory was visited. On the 14th
August, 1917 Mr. Jameson was again examined as
the Manager of the Jalaha factory. No more evi-
dence was recorded after this. Mahatmaji, however,
placed before the Committee the statements of a
number of tenants and a great many judgments of
courts, which might throw light on the subject mat-
ter of the enquiry.

It may be stated here that in the days on which
the Committee did not examine witnesses or visit
villages, there used to be sessions of it for consider-
ing the evidence already recorded. There were seve-
ral sittings of this nature. What used to take place
in those sittings is not known to outsiders ; but it
became a matter of public knowledge later on, that
to one of these sittings Mr. Hill of Turkaulia,
Mr. Norman of Peepra and Mr. Irwin of Moti-
hari were invited and an attempt was made to bring
about an amicable settlement between them and their
tenants regarding sharahbeshi (enhancement).

ENQUIRY COMMITTEE AT WORK 177

It is also necessary to state here that Mahatmaji
agreed to a reduction in sharahbeshi instead of
demanding its total cancellation. There were many
difficulties in the way of tenants. They had with
their eyes open executed these enhancement agree-
ments although it was under coercion. The burden
of .proving that these agreements had been executed
under fraud or coercion was on them. The Settle-
ment Officer had held most of these agreements to
be valid and the rent fixed by these agreements was
entered in the record of rights. Under S. 103 of the
Bengal Tenancy Act the Court is bound to presume
the record of rights to be correct and the onus of
showing that it was wrong was on the tenants.
Although out of the nine test cases fought in Tur-
kaulia five had been decided in favour of the tenants
and only four in favour of the factory, these cases
had cost a great deal and given much trouble to the
tenants. On the one hand the factories were rich
and powerful, their managers able and alert, their
papers well kept and arranged ; on the other, the
tenants were poor and weak and uneducated and
they had hardly any papers. God alone knows what
would have been the result of this unequal fight if it
had to be decided in Court. But more than anything
else, if suits had to be instituted to cancel these
enhancement agreements, then about fifty thousand
such suits would have to be brought. The cases
which the planters would have lost would surely
have been carried to the High Court. But what
Mahatmaji felt most was that if this matter was not
settled by the Committee and the tenants were dri-
ven to the necessity of going to Court, then ill-feeling
between the tenants and planters would rise to such

178 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

a pitch that they would become implacable enemies.
What he was anxious about was that the trouble of
the tenants should disappear and friendship estab-
lished between the two parties, and their relation
should be such that each should wish well of the
other. Both should have their rights and none any
ill-will against the other. But how was all this to be
achieved without an amicable settlement ? It was
for these reasons that Mahatmaji and the members
of the Committee were anxious that there should be
a compromise.

After several private meetings and Mr. Jame-
son's examination on the 14th August, 1917, the work
of the Committee for the time being came to a close
and the next sitting was fixed to be held at Ranchi
in September. The members of the Committee dis-
persed to their respective places and Mahatmaji also
started for Ahmedabad on the 16th August, 1917,
leaving Babu Ramnavmiprasad and the writer in
Champaran, the other members of Mahatmaji's party
going home.

On the 22nd September, Mahatmaji returned
from Ahmedabad to Ranchi. Babu Brajakishoreprasad
also went there. Soon after his arrival there Mahat-
maji had an attack of malarial fever, but in spite of
it he went on working in the Committee. There were
several sittings of the Committee to settle the report
and Mr. Irwin and some other planters were wired
to go to Ranchi to settle the question of shar< hbeshi.
After several days* discussion the members of the
Committee signed a unanimous report on the 3rd of
October and submitted it to the Government on the
4th of October. After considering the report, the
Government published their resolution on the 18th

ENQUIRY COMMITTEE REPORT 179

of October. It need only be stated here that the
Government accepted almost all the recommenda-
tions of the Committee.

From Ranchi Mahatmaji returned to Cham-
paran and stopped there till the 12th of October.
Groups of tenants used to come to see Mahatmaji and
to, enquire about the recommendations of the Com-
mittee. Mahatmaji told them the principal points
and they were satisfied.

The students of Bihar had elected Mahatmaji as
the President of the Biharee Students' Conference
which was to be held at Bhagalpur on the 15th Octo-
ber. Mahatmaji started from Motihari for Bhagalpur
and went to Bombay from there. About this time
Babu Janakdhariprasad, Vakil of Muzaffarpur, came
and took charge of the office at Motihari and began
to live there.

17

THE REPORT OF THE CHAMPARAN
AGRARIAN ENQUIRY COMMITTEE

It has already been mentioned above that the
members of the Enquiry Committee had submitted
their Report to the Government on the 4th October,
1917, and the latter having accepted almost all the
recommendations had published their Resolution on
the 18th October, 1917. The following is the gist of
the Committee's recommendations which were ac-
cepted by the Government and which were published
in their Resolution :

(1) The tinkathia system, whether for growing indigo
or any other crop, should be completely abolished.

180 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

(2) If any agreement be executed for growing indigo
it should be done on the following conditions :

(a) The agreement should be voluntary.

(b) Its term should not exceed 3 years.

(c) The selection of field in which indigo is to
be grown should rest with the ryots.

(d) The rate of sale of indigo plants should be
settled by the ryots according to their choice.

(e) The price of indigo plants should be paid on
weight. If the ryots agree, the plant instead of being
weighed on a scale its weight may be appraised by
arbitrators.

(3) In Motihari and Peepra concerns the enhancement
should be reduced by 26 p. c. and in Turkaulia concern
by 20 p. c.

(a) In Jalaha and Sirni factories the enhance-
ment would be reduced as in Motihari and Peepra.

(b) The tenants in whose record of right the
tinkathia lafjnn has been mentioned will have to pay
enhancement on their rent in accordance with the
above proportion.

(c) The Rajghat factory has not claimed any
indigo lagan. The ryots of that factory have executed
*' ttas for growing indigo on condition that no en-
hancement would be made in their rental. Hence the
factory did not apply for enhancement before the Set-
tlement authorities. The ryots of that locality want
to give up indigo now. Hence an opportunity should
be given to the said concern to apply for enhancement.

(4) The ryots who have paid to wan (either in cash
or through hand-notes) to the factories will get back one
fourth of it from them. In those villages which have been
given in lease to the factory recently the entire amount
of tawan would be returned to the ryots. The Bettiah
Court of Wards will not realize the enhancement jama from
them for a period of 7 years.

(5) The realization of abwab is altogether illegal. In
future the ryots should not pay any amount to the Zamin-
dars in excess of what is entered in their khatian or Record
of Rights.

ENQUIRY COMMITTEE REPORT

(6) It is illegal to realize any fee for mutation of
name of an heir of a ryot. In other cases such fee should
be realized on a fixed scale. The Board of Revenue would
be informed that it should consider about fixing of such
a scale for mutation in the Bettiah Raj and the mokarridars
should also be f asked to realize fee on the same scale.

(7) The charsa-mahal should be abolished in the Bet-
tiah Raj, but no final orders should be issued in this con-
nection till this matter is fully enquired into in the Ram-
nagar Raj.

(8) It is illegal to issue licence for selling kerosine
oil and this system should be altogether abolished.

(9) In the Bettiah Raj the tenants can purchase half,
the share in timber on payment of proper price to the
nfalik, but if in any elaka it may be apprehended that
trees would be cut away (in large numbers) the Manager
of the Bettiah Raj may limit the number of petitions of
ryots in this respect.

(10) The Zamindars, mokarridars and the lessees
should be informed that they should keep sufficient parti
and grazing grounds for cattle in their elaka.

(11) It is illegal to impose and realize fines from the
tenants. The ryots should be informed about it and the
Zamindars, * okarridars and the lessees should be pro-
hibited from realizing the same.

(12) The term of a cart-satta should not exceed 5
years and the agreement about it should be voluntary.

(13) Labour should be voluntary.

(14) In connection with the recommendation of the
Committee about issuing receipt for payment of each feist
or instalment of rent the Government would prescribe a
form, if possible, for the same.

(15) The District Board would be informed to keep
direct management of the pounds as an experimental
measure and not to lease them out to factories or other
lessees. ' *

It should be added that immediately on the publi-
cation of the report and the Government Resolution
thereon on the 18th October, 1917, a notice was

182 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

distributed throughout the District on behalf of the
Government containing for the information of the
tenants, a summary of the recommendations of the
Committee.

This annoyed the planters very much and Mr.
Irwin of Motihari raised a great hue and cry in the
Press, which will be dealt with in detail hereafter.
The Pratap, a Hindi newspaper of Cawnpore, had
before Mahatma Gandhi's arrival in Champaran writ-
ten a series of articles and had at one time issued
a notice inviting all concerned to supply it with
materials for a book on the grievances of the tenants
of Champaran. In those days the policy of the Gov-
ernment was altogether different and the distribution
of the notice had been stopped by it. From the same
Press a booklet which was a sort of a commentary
on the Government notices was now issued under the
title of Champaran ka Uddh>r and large numbers
of its copies were sold in Champaran, carrying the
news of their emancipation to almost every house.
The planters complained that this booklet was being
distributed on behalf of Mahatma Gandhi, but it was,
of course, not true and Mahatmaji repudiated the
charge. The result of all this was that there was
hardly any place in the whole District where the re-
commendations of the Committee were not known.
The tenants could now fully realize that through the
efforts of Mahatma Gandhi their evil days were over
and they could now sleep soundly in their homes and
they could now shout with a full throat, Mahatma
Gandhi ki Jai.

18
PLANTERS UNEASY

Even before the report of the Committee was
published, Mr. 'irwin of the Motihari factory had
managed to obtain information about its contents ;
and on the 7th of October 1917 he wrote a long letter
to the Englishman, and the Statesman which may be
summarized as follows :

" The Committee invited me and the Managers of
Peepra and Turkaulia at Bettiah and advised us to
enter into a compromise about sharahbeshi. I agreed to
accept a reduction in the enhancement by 25 p. c. on the
condition that the tatoan would be left untouched. I
showed to them that by reducing the enhancement by 25
p. c. there would be a loss of Rs. 13,000 in the annual
income of my concern alone. But in spite of this Mr.
Gandhi did not accept our terms and insisted on a reduc-
tion of 40 p. c. There was a similar talk at Ranch! and
after much higgling I agreed to reduce the sharahbeshi by
2G p. c. but there was absolutely no talk about tawan. It
now appears from the report of the Committee that 25 p. c.
of tawan will have also to be refunded. The result is
that I alone shall have to refund Rs. 80,000."
He further stated :

" That our representative signed a report of 'this sort
is a matter which will have to be settled with him. But
I hereby absolutely decline to submit to any treatment of
this kind and I as publicly as possible now revoke, repu-
diate and withdraw the concession of 25 p. c. of the
sharahbeshi from the beginning of the coming year and
will, if obliged to, spend this money in fighting this to a
finish."

This letter of Mr. Irwin was published in the
Statesman of the 21st and the Englishman of the
22nd October. The Government criticized it very

183

184 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

severely in its communique of the 23rd October and
repudiated the charges made against the President
and the members of the Committee. The Govern-
ment note distinctly said :

" The Lieut. -Governor-in-Council is enable to believe
the allegations made by Mr. Irwin that the Committee
obtained his consent to the reduction of sharabbeshi
by leading him distinctly to understand that it (tawan)
would not be interfered with."

On the 24th of October Mr. Irwin published
another letter in which he charged Mahatma Gandhi
with having shown to the S. D. 0. of Bettiah a letter
of the Lieutenant Governor, authorizing Mahatmaji
to inform the tenants of the recommendations of the
Committee. He further charged the Local Govern-
ment with partiality for the tenants. It need hardly
be stated that the charge against Mahatmaji was
wholly unfounded as he had never shown any such
letter to Mr. Lewis, and the Government was only
doing its duty by the tenants.

It may further be stated that Mr. Irwin had
written in his first letter that Mr. Rainy, who was a
member of the Committee, and who had formerly
been a Collector of Champaran, as Collector advised
the planters in the matter of tawan. This state-
ment was reiterated by an anonymous planter, who
wrote a letter to the Press under pseudonym of " Old
Champaran ". He wanted to know from Mr. Rainy,
how Mr. Rainy, having advised the realization of
tawan, could sign a report recommending refund of
part of the same.

On the 25th of October Mr. Irwin returned to
the charge and criticizing the Government note
wrote as follows :

PLANTERS UNEASY 185

" I would like to know if His Honour has made any
enquiries from the only people in a position to say whether
my allegation is true or not, viz. the managers of Turkaulia
Ltd., and Peepra who, with Messrs. Rainy, Reid and myself,
were the only persons present at the preliminary discus-
sion."

On the 2nd of November, 1917, Mr. Jameson
wrote a long letter to the Statesman, in which he
severely criticized the proceedings of the Com-
mittee and said that taivan had been realized with
the consent of Mr. Rainy. He further said that as
in 1909 after Mr. Gourlay's report Sir Edward Baker
had held a private conference of the planters and
settled the whole disputes by enhancing the price of
indigo, so also if any changes or modifications were
necessary, the Government ought to have quickly
sent for the planters and settled the matter with
them. But from the way in which the Government
had acted in not stopping Mr. Gandhi's enquiry, it
was evident that the Government did not want to do
justice to the planters who had lost all confidence in
it. He added, " The Government would have retain-
ed the confidence of the planting community had it
shown itself genuinely anxious to deal honestly with
the whole question on its merits and to allay the un-
rest caused by its mistaken policy."

The Government for once wanted to do justice
to the tenants and this was the result !

It is necessary to point out here that Mr.
Ir win's statement regarding taw on was not correct
and he was probably under a misapprehension. The
Government held an enquiry into the matter. Mr.
Norman, the Manager of the Peepra Factory, whom
Mr. Irwin had mentioned in his letter wrote as
follows on the 27th of October 1917 :

186 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

"To the best of my recollections and it is my firm
impression that the question of lawan was never men-
tioned or referred to in any way at either of the two com-
mittee meetings I have attended ; but personally I was under
no misunderstanding about the Committee's idea regarding
the refund of 25 p. c. as I was told they intended recom-
mending this refund in a conversation at Bettiah just be-
fore the Committee meeting there which Hill, Irwin and
I attended. It is my impression that both Hill and Irwin
were told the same as I was .... I wrote to Hill and Irwin

when I was in Ranchi in August last I asked Mr. Sly

if the tawan question would be any way influenced by
what was settled over sharahbeshi and he informed me
that tawan was an entirely different matter and whatever
was settled regarding sharahbeshi would in no way affect
their decision about tawan."

Mr. Reid, who was the planters' representative
on the Committee wrote on the 1st of November as
follows :

" I am extremely surprised to read Mr. Irwin's asser-
tion that assurances were given that the 26 p. c. sharah-
beshi reduction would not be applied to tawan. On the
contrary I have the clearest recollection that when Mr.
Irwin came to Bettiah, he himself asked me if anything
had been decided about tawan showing that he under-
stood that the consultation with the three planters only
referred to sharuhbeshi. Moreover I told him that the
Committee had decided to recommend a 25 p. c. refund of
tawan. He strongly disapproved but finally said that he
would prefer to pay the money to Raj and not to the ryots.
I told him that the matter had been finally settled by the
Committee and I could do nothing further. All this was at
Bettiah. When he came to Ranchi the tawan question was
never mentioned."

Regarding the allegation made by Mr. Irwin,
Mr. Jameson and an anonymous planter that Mr.
Rainy had advised the realization of tawan the Gov-
ernment held an enquiry and Mr. Rainy wrote in

PLANTERS UNEASY 187

"It is not true that fawan was taken by him after
consultation with me and on my advice. Had he said that
it was taken with my knowledge and without interference
from me, he would have been correct. He never asked
for my advice nor did I advise him."

He further wrote that whatever correspondence
he had with the planters in this connection he for-
warded to the Government atid communicated the
Government reply to them. As a Collector he said
he could not have done anything else and in his per-
sonal capacity he offered no advice. It may also be
stated here that on the 7th of November 1917, Mr.
Irwin wrote a letter to the Statesman which was pub-
lished in its issue of 14th of November 1917 in which
he admitted that after enquiry from Messrs. Hill and
Norman he had found that he was mistaken, re-
garding tawan\ but that he had never agreed to a
refund of tawan and that his agreement to the reduc-
tion of sharahbeshi was subject to the condition that
he would not have to refund taivan.

The readers must have gathered some impres-
sion regarding the uneasiness caused by the report
among the planters. Many letters and articles were
published in the Anglo-Indian Press against the re-
commendations of the Committee and an anonymous
writer, XYZ wrote to the Statesman on the 8th
of November threatening that after the action which
the Government had taken, no one would care to
accept leases from the Bettiah Raj. One Mr. Kenneth
Mackenzie who had at one time been a planter in
Champaran wrote as follows from Darjeeling :

"The Government of Bihar have employed the most
unheared of methods to uproot respect for Bihar planters
in ryots' minds by their insulting procedure of scattering
broadcast pamphlets in the vernacular among an ignorant

188 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

peasant population most unjustly putting planters in the
wrong.

" The action will have much more serious results than
Sir E. Gait anticipates and he and his colleagues and the
members of the so-called Commission should be held col-
lectively and individually responsible *for any bloodshed
that may ensue. Will the Bihar Government think for one
moment that the planters will accept without question the
arbitrary findings of the Commission ? Will the European
Defence Association see this injustice done to a section of
their own community ? I trow not."

On the 12th of November Mr. J. M. Wilson, the
Secretary of the Bihar Planters' Association sent to
the Statesman for publication the opinion of the
planters' legal adviser. It was published in its issue
of the 18th November 1917.

It may be summarized thus :

"It is doubtful if the Bihar Government has got the
power to take away the right about the tinkathi'i possessed
by the planters. The contract which has been in existence
can only be broken with the consent of both the parties.
But without their consent the notice issued by the Govern-
ment can have no effect. It is more than 3 years that
tawan money was realized and the same cannot be realized
through court. Hence to take them back from the planters
and pay them to the ryots is equivalent to extortion."

Someone under the nomdeplume of ' Solicitous '
wrote a letter on the 20th of November to the
Statesman in which, commenting on the letter of Mr.
Mackenzie, he advised the European Association to
take action in the matter in ns much as what had
happened to the planters of Champaran today might
happen to the Englishmen elsewhere tomorrow. A
similar letter from some Englishman was also pub-
lished in the Statesman of 24th November in which
he attacked Mahatma Gandhi, the Government of
Bihar and the Committee and supported Mr. Irwin's

PLANTERS DNEASY 189

opinion regarding tawan and praised the planters.
One gentleman under the name of ' Ruat Caelum '
wrote the following letter which was published in
the Statesman of 2nd December in which he gave a
crushing reply to the various attacks made on the
Committee :

" If I have understood the writer of the article cor-
rectly his position is that Status quo-ante- Gandhi in Cham-
paran should be restored, because, (1) it pays the ryot to
grow indigo, (2) the indigo planter is a good, considerate
landlord, (3) all planters and their relatives of military
age are fighting for the empire, (4) certain planters served
Bettiah Raj many years ago. To take these in reverse
order, most people acquainted with the facts who are not
planters, would think regarding the fourth that the plant-
ers in question got an ample quid pro quo. The third
hardly appears to me apposite and the second would be
generally admitted to be true, if a proviso is added " so
long as such conduct does not interfere with his own in-
terest ". Some would add the rider that the planter is bound
to behave thus in his own interest. The real crux lies in the
first. Either the taking of tawan was a highly discredit-
able transaction in which the planter made use of his in-
fluence and superior knowledge, to extract a large sum
from the ryot for a release which was worth nothing, or it
does not pay the ryot to grow indigo at the rate fixed
by the Bihar Planters' Association. I have no doubt that

the latter is the correct answer As for Sly Committee's

recommendation with respect to la wan there must be
many who were surprised at the moderation."

It is the opinion of many persons that this letter
was written by some high placed Englishman. While
on one hand the planters and their supporters were
thus carrying on an agitation in the Press, on the
other, they were running down the tenants in various
cases to bend them. The Government of Bihar in-
troduced the Champaran Agrarian Bill into the Bihar
Legislative Council on 29th November, 1917.

19
THE CHAMP ARAN AGRARIAN ACT

On the 29th of November the Hon'ble Mr. Maude
introduced the Champaran Agrarian Bill into the
Legislative Council. On this occasion he delivered a
remarkable speech. * In the course of it he gave a
short history of the indigo trouble in Champaran
during the last 50 or 60 years as detailed in the pre-
vious chapters ; and he showed the justice of the
action of the Government in adopting the recom-
mendations of the Committee. It may be stated here
that when the planters raised a clamour against the
report of the Committee, the Hon'ble Mr. D. J. Reid,
who till then represented the planters on the Legis-
lative Council and who had signed the report as a
member of the Committee, resigned his place on the
Council and Mr. J. V. Jameson was appointed in his
stead. The Government nominated Mr. P. Kennedy,
the legal adviser of the planters, as a member of
the Council. These two members criticized the in-
troduction of the Bill very severely, but the criticism
was more than met by the Hon'ble Mr. Maude in his
reply and the Bill was published again in the Gov-
ernment Gazettee on 20th February, 1918. The report
of the Committee was placed before the Council for
consideration on the 4th of March, 1918. Many Indian
members moved amendments to improve the Bill
from the tenants' point of view ; while Mr. Jameson
and Mr. Kennedy also tried to have it amended from
their point of view. But no important amendment

' See Appendix A.

190

THE CHAMPARAN AGRARIAN ACT

was accepted by the Government. There was one
matter however worth mentioning. The Bill as ori-
ginally introduced, contained a provision that if a
Government official was informed that a Zamindar
realized abwab the former could proceed against the
latter suo moto and if after the enquiry the fact was
proved, he could punish the Zamindar. The Select
Committee had deleted this section. The Hon'ble
Mr. Tanner moved that it should be reinserted in the
Bill. The Government, left its members free to vote
as they liked. The result was that most of the non-
official members and some official members voted
against Mr. Tanner's amendment and it was rejected.
Those who voted against it were of opinion that
under the Bengal Tenancy Act, a Zamindar who rea-
lized abwab, was liable to be punished on the com-
plaint of a tenant and it was not necessary to have
a new law for Champaran alone. The Bill was ulti-
mately passed and became the Champaran Agrarian
Act. Its principal provisions were as follows :

(1) On and after the commencement of the Act any
agreement, lease or other contract between a land-lord and
a tenant holding under him which contains a condition to
set apart the land of his tenancy or any portion thereof
for the cultivation of a particular crop shall be void to the
extent of such condition.

Provided that if the tenant has in consideration of such
condition received any advance prior to the commence-
ment of this Act, he shall be bound to refund the same.

(2) Where in consideration of the release of a tenant
from a condition, the rent payable by such tenant, prior
to the first day of October, 1917, has been enhanced, the
amount of such enhancement shall, with effect from the
said date be reduced by 20 per cent in the case of rent
payable to Turkaulia Limited, and by 26 per cent in all
other cases, and a note to that effect will be made in the
record of rights.

192 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

(3) Where a special condition or incident referred to
above has been entered in the record of rights in respect
of a tenancy, the same will be cancelled and the rent of
the tenancy will be enhanced to an extent proportionate
to the reduced enhancement mentioned above.

(4) The Local Government will by rule prescribe the
authority for making necessary amendments in the record
of rights, whose decision shall be considered final.

(5) Nothing in the Act shall prevent a tenant from
contracting to deliver to his landlord a specified weight of
a particular crop to be grown on the land of his tenancy
or any portion thereof.

Provided (i) that any claim for damages for breach
of such contract shall be based on a failure to deli-
ver the specified weight and not on a failure to cultivate
any portion of land ; (ii) that the term of such con f ract
shall not exceed 3 years.

The most outstanding features of the Act
were :

(1) The abolition of tinknthia.

(2) Reduction of sharahbeshi by 20 per cent in
Turkaulia and 26 per cent in other factories.

(3) The freedom of tenants' holdings from an obliga-
tion to grow indigo and liberty to them to grow indigo
on the voluntary basis if they liked ; and

(4) Arrangement to prevent litigation in respect of
the matters covered by the Act.

The Committee had also recommended that 25
per cent of the tawan realized by the factories
should be refunded. The Government had accepted
this recommendation. Accordingly the Bettiah Raj
refunded Rs. 1,60,301-9-9 out of the tawan realized
by 18 factories. It may be added here that no refund
could be got in respect of villages that did not belong
to the Bettiah Raj. In regard to one factory it is
worth stating that its proprietor, after realizing the
tawan, transferred it and it was considered unjust
to force a refund from the new purchaser. After the

THE CHAMPARAN AGRARIAN ACT 193

passing of the Agrarian Act, the Pioneer, the mouth-
piece of Anglo-Indians, severely criticized the action
of the Government which had dared to do some justice
to the long-suffering tenantry of Champaran. It
wrote as follows :

"We regret to find in those steps the worst of the
faults that can be attributed to the bureaucracy. Infirmity
of purpose is the key-note throughout and it manifests
itself in the usual symptoms ; a purposeless insistence for
as long as possible on secretariat secrecy and a refusal of
requests for discussion when constitutionally put forward
followed by a prompt acceptance of the same request when
the party making them shows a disposition and ability to
make things unpleasant for the secretariat ; professed reli-
ance on the opinion of local officers so long as that
profession serves as an excuse for secrecy and delay,
followed by abandonment of those opinions when they
are found to be inconvenient ; a too obvious desire to
evade for as long as possible grasping the nettle of a con-
troversial subject with the inevitable risk of injustice
resulting according to the power of one side or the other
to put pressure on Government." (Pioneer, March 13,
1918)

It was natural that the Anglo-Indian Press
should write like this. But every fair-minded person
will admit that it was the first attempt on the part
of the Government to redress the long-standing
grievances of the tenants and even to this the hands
of the Government were forced by a world-renowned
reformer like Mahatma Gandhi. The so-called self-
created rights of the planters were no doubt affected
and their henchmen in the Anglo-Indian Press un-
doubtedly felt sore about the matter, but the effect
of the Act, so far as the ordinary people were con-
sidered, was all for the good and after a long long
waiting the burden on the oppressed tenants was for
the first time lightened to a certain extent.

20
HOW VOLUNTEERS SERVED

It was the opinion of Mahatma Gandhi that one
of the main reasons of the suii'erings of the tenants
of Champaran was their ignorance. He was con-
vinced from the very beginning that it was impossi-
ble for any outside agency^ to improve their lot unless
their mental and moral condition was improved. This
applies to the whole of India, but it can be demon-
strated beyond contradiction in Champaran. The
tenantry is altogether helpless. It is weak and there
is gross ignorance. Mahatmaji had therefore made
up his mind at an early stage of his mission that even
if he succeeded in securing some relief for the ryots
they would not be able to get the full benefit of it
and they would become subject to fresh bonds. It
has already been observed that since the advent of
Mahatma Gandhi a peculiar -sense of freedom and
fearlessness was visible among the tenants of Cham-
paran. But whether this was only a passing phase
or a permanent acquisition by them could not be said
for certain. Their mode of living also requires a
great change. Dirt in the villages, dirt on the roads,
dirt everywhere. The villagers have lost the *ordi-
nary capacity for organized work and cannot, by
their combined action, repair a small village path-
way. On the advent of any epidemic disease they
fall victims to it, there being none to help them or
protect them and there being no arrangement for
their treatment. When there is no arrangement for
sanitation, what arrangement could one expect

194

HOW VOLUNTEERS SERVED 195

regarding medical relief ? Mahatmaji had accordingly
decided that arrangement for spread of education
was as necessary among them as the redress of their
grievances. Sometime before the Enquiry Committee
commenced its work Mahatmaji had written to some
friends about it knd told them what sort of volunteers
he needed for this social work. He had written to
a friend :

" Their (volunteers') work will be the most
important and lasting and therefore it will be the
final essential stage of the mission. They (volun-
teers) have to be grown up, reliable, hardworking
men who would not mind taking the spade and
repairing and making village roads and cleaning
village cess pools and who will, in their dealings
with their landlords, guide the ryots aright. Six
months of such training cannot fail to do incal-
culable good to the ryots, the workers and the
country at large/'

After the Committee had tnade its report, Mahat-
maji found time to attend to this part of the work
and on the 8th of November, 1917, he came to ChW-
paran from Bombay with some volunteers. It was
his wish that in this social work he should get the
help of planters and that in the villages of almost
every factory he should open one or more schools.
But alas ! this wish could not be fulfilled. He decid-
ed that if the planters would not give him lands in
their villages, he should open these schools in inde-
pendent places. At a distance of about 20 miles to
the east of Motihari there is a place called Barharwa
Lakhansen which is a village of the* Bettiah Raj
and free from the control of any factory. It was

196 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

decided to open a school there. A generous gentle-
man of the village Babii Shivgulamlal gave his house
for the school and promised other help. There on
the 13th of November, 1917, Mahatma Gandhi open-
ed his first school in Champaran. The school was
put in charge of Shriyut Baban Gokhale, his cultured
wife Shrimati Awantikabai Gokhale and Mahat-
maji's youngest son, Shriyut Devadas Gandhi. Some
time later Shriyut Chhotelal and Shriyut Surendraji
came from Satyagraha Ashram, Sabarmati, and stay-
ed at Barharwa. Mr. Baban Gokhale is a distinguish-
ed engineer of Bombay, who had received his
education and training in Europe and Shrimati
Awantikabai had travelled in Europe and before
coming to Champaran she was engaged in the work
of education in Bombay and has been doing the same
kind of work after her return from Champaran.

Another school was opened by Mahatmaji on
the 20th of November in a village called Bhitharwa.
This village is situated in the Nepal Tarai about forty
miles north-west of Bettiah. At a short distance from
this village is the Belwa factory of which Mr. A. C.
Ammon was the Manager. There is a small temple
in the village in which a sadhu used to live. The
temple has some lakherai (rent-free land). The
sadhu gave a portion of that land for the school
which was opened in a straw hut erected for the pur-
pose. Shriyut Sadasiva Lakshman Soman, B.A.,
LL.B., a vakil of Belgaum in the Bombay Presidency,
an enthusiastic young man from Gujarat, Shriyut
Balakrishna Yogeshwar Purohit, Shrimati Kastur-
bai Gandhi and Dr. Dev began to live there.

With the help of Seth Ghanashyamdas, a wealthy
merchant, a school was opened on the 17th of January,

HOW VOLUNTEERS SERVED 1Q7

1918, at Madhuban in the Seth's house. Shriyut
Narahari Dwarkadas Parikh, B. A., LL. B., a resident
of Gujarat and Professor of the Satyagraha Ashram,
Sabarmati, his wife Shrimati Manibai Parikh,
Mahatmaji's Secretary, Shriyut Mah^dev Haribhai
Desai, B.A., LL.B., his wife Shrimati Durgabai,
Shrimati Anandibai, the sister of Shriyut Divekar,
the Registrar of the Women's University of Poona,
began to live there. For some time Shriyut Vishnu
Seetaram Randive alias Appaji and Professor Kri-
palani also worked here. Professor Kripalani had
to undergo imprisonment in Champaran, which of
course he gladly accepted.

It is a matter of regret and shame for the people
of Bihar that while highly educated and respectable
people of the class mentioned above from other pro-
vinces volunteered their services, for some time not
one man was found in the whole province to take up
this social work. Babu Dharnidhar, M.A., B.L., had the
good fortune of accompanying Mahatmaji from
Muzaffarpur to Motihari when Mahatma Gandhi set
his foot for the first time on the soil of Champaran.
To him also came the privilege of assisting in the
completion of Mahatmaji's work by six months* stay
with his wife and children imparting education in
the school at Madhuban. Besides the ladies and
gentlemen mentioned above, other volunteers joined
later on and served in one or another of the schools.
They were Shriyut Brajlal Bhimji Rupani of Satya-
graha Ashram, Shriyut Pranlal Prabhuram Yogi
from Kathiawad, Shriyut Ramaraksha Brahmchari
and Babu Shyamdeva Sahi alias Dipaji of Saran and
some paid teachers were also engaged from time to
time. The objects and ideals and the method of

198 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

education imparted in these pathashalas were describ-
ed as follows by Mahatmaji in a letter to a Govern-
ment official :

" In the schools I am opening, children under
the age of 12 only are admitted. The idea is to
get hold of as many children as possible and to
give them an all round education, i. e. a good
knowledge of Hindi or Urdu and, through that
medium, of arithmetic and rudiments of history
and geography, a knowledge of simple scientific
principles and some industrial training. No cut
and dried syllabus has yet been prepared because
I am going on an unbeaten track. I look upon our
present system with horror and distrust. Instead
of developing the moral and mental faculties of the
little children it dwarfs them. In my experiment
whilst I shall draw upon what is good in it, I shall
endeavour to avoid the defects of the present sys-
tem. The chief thing aimed at is contact of children
with men and women of culture and un-impeach-
able moral character. That to me is education.
Literary training is to be used merely as a means
to that end. The industrial training is to be design-
ed for the boys and 4 the girls who may come to us
for an additional means of livelihood. It is not
intended that on completing their education they
should leave their hereditary occupation but make
use of the knowledge acquired in the school to re-
fine agriculture and agricultural life. Our teachers
will also touch the lives of grown up people and,
if at all possible, penetrate the purdah. Instruction
will be given to grown up people in hygiene and
about the advantages of joint action, for the pro-
motion of communal welfare, such as, the making

HOW VOLUNTEERS SERVED 199

of village roads proper, the sinking of wells etc.
And as no school will be manned by teachers who
are not men or women of good training, we pro-
pose to give free medical aid so far as is possible."
In accordance with these principles education
was given to about 140 children at the Barharwa
pathashala under Mr. Gokhale and Mrs. Gokhale
began to educate about 40 girls and women. In this
pathashala weaving also was taught and people there
trained in the art of corporate action by making them
keep their wells and village roads clean. Mr. Gokhale
and Mrs. Awantikabai would themselves clean the
village which naturally produced a great impression
on the minds of the inhabitants. Women used to be
trained now to keep their children clean and well.
This pathashala still exists. The Bhitharwa patha-
shala is situate in a locality where complete igno-
rance reigns. The climate is bad. The number of
children for these reasons never exceeded 40 ; but
Dr. Dev created very good impression among the
people by teaching others sanitary modes of living.
Shortly after the establishment of the school, one
night at about midnight the school huts caught fire
and were reduced to ashes. Dr. Dev, Shriyut
Somanji, Shriyut Appaji and Shrimati Gandhi were
staying there at the time. The school was at a dis-
tance from the village and so the village people could
render no assistance. It was the considered opinion
of Dr. Dev that the fire was due to an act of incendia-
rism. But instead of wasting time in inquiring into
the cause of the fire, Dr. Dev, Mr. Somanji and
Appaji decided to erect a brick building in place of
the burnt straw hut ; and in no time did they suc-
ceed in erecting it, carrying bricks on their own

200 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

heads and doing the work of coolies. This building
still exists.

After the departure of the first batch two volun-
teers from Maharashtra, named Narayan Tammaji
Katagade alias Pundalik and Eknath Vasudeva
Kshire came to Champaran and began to work at the
Bhitharwa pathashala with singular boldness. Pun-
dalikji's presence proved too much for the Govern-
ment and after a short time he was ordered under
the Defence of India Act to go out of the Province.
After Pundalikji's departure his place was taken by
another Maharashtra volunteer, Shriyut Shankarrao
Dev, B.A., who remained there for several months.

The Madhuban pathashala was also very success-
ful and had about 100 boys: A girl's pathashala was
opened there in which some 40 girls received educa-
tion under Shrimati Anandibai. After the depar-
ture of the first batch from Madhuban, Shriyut Kshire
and Shriyut Shyamdev Narayan worked there for
several months. The entire cost of this pathashala
was practically borne by Seth Ghanashyamdas. It is
to be regretted, however, that this pathashala is
closed.

As stated above, education was given in these
pathashalas in Hindi and Urdu. Mahatmaji himself
used to visit them from time to time and suggest im-
provements in them. Dr. Dev used to supervise the
pathashalas, deliver lectures on sanitation and
cleanliness and treat sick people. Although the
volunteers of the first batch remained in Champaran
for six months only their influence was not confined
to the pathashalas only, but as was expected by
Mahatmaji all the people of the locality were touched
and even purdah ladies did not remain altogether

HOW VOLUNTEERS SERVED 201

unaffected. If this work had been continued for
some time, then not only Champaran but the other
districts of Bihar would have undergone a great
change for the better.

From what has been said above it should noi be
presumed that Mahatma Gandhi commenced his work
of education only after the report of th Enquiry
Committee. For those who were capable of taking
lessons he had started his work of education the day
he set his foot in Champaran. He showed a new
world to those who had the privilege of serving under
him. He gave them a new life. Whenever we used
to talk to him about Swaraj he used to say that he
was doing the work of Swaraj. We could not, I con-
fess, realize at the time the full significance of what
he said ; but today when the immediate work in hand
in Champaran has been. finished, it may truly be said
that it was the real work of Swaraj. When Mahat-
maji, on his way to Champaran, had visited a village
near Muzaflfarpur and seen the condition of the
people and the children there, he had exclaimed
" We can get Swaraj only when we improve the lot
of these people ! " He had proceeded to Champaran
to improve the lot of those people. It was his
opinion that his great work required a large number
of volunteers and it was desirable to get as many
men and women as possible ; but every one was not
fit for this work. For this kind of service they alone
were fit who had accepted Truth, cast out fear- and
adopted poverty. Mahatmaji accordingly attracted
his assistants towards these noble ideals. When we
first reached Champaran many of us had servants,
we had a cook also. Within a short time the number
of servants was reduced and shortly afterwards there

202 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

was one servant left. The result was that those who
had not in all their lives drawn one potful of water
out of a well or washed a small napkin began tinder
the Mahatma's influence within a short time to help
each other in bathing, washing clothes and cleaning
utensils. In fact we used to do everything ourselves.
To sweep ihe rooms and floor, to clean the kitchen,
to wash our own utensils, to carry luggage and other
bundles from the station and the market these and
such other things we all used to do and without hesi-
tation. After the removal of the cook Shrimati
Gandhi used to cook food for all of us and used to
feed us all with motherly affection. It was one of
the results of Mahatmaji's visit that we ceased to
look upon travelling in a third class compartment as
a matter of indignity. His simple nature, Swadeshi
dress and great sacrifice wrought a tremendous
change in the lives not only of those who had the
privilege of working under him, but also many other
persons in the province. After his return from
South Africa this was the first great work in India
to which he had set his hand and through God's
grace by achieving success, he was able to show his
countrymen a new path which would enable them to
attain whatever goal they may have before them.

So ended the great struggle in Champaran. It
is difficult to fully and correctly estimate the effect
of Mahatma Gandhi's stay in Champaran. The time
has not yet come to write the history of his achieve-
ments. The seed which he sowed in Champaran,
nay in India, has sprouted, but is yet a sapling ; it
will take time to blossom into flower and bear fruit.
But if from the greenness of the sapling any esti-
mate can be formed of the sweetness of the fruit to

HOW VOLUNTEERS SERVED 203

be, then it will have to be said, in all gratefulness,
that in no distant future new life, new thoughts, new
aspirations and a new age are going to dawn. The
seed of Indian Swaraj has been truly sown in
Champaran and the freedom which the poor, helpless
downtrodden tenants of Champaran have secured
against the educated, ever vigilent and wealthy
planters, living under the protecting wings of the
powreful Government, is but a precursor of that
larger freedom which Indians, trampled under the
heels for centuries, are going to achieve in their
struggle for Swaraj. May God hasten that day !

APPENDIX A

THE CHAMPARAN AGRARIAN. BILL, 1917

The Hon'ble Mr. Maude moved for leave to in-
troduce the Champaran Agrarian Bill, 1917.

He said :

" Your Honour,

" I rise to move for leave to introduce into Council a Bill
the objects of which have been described in the preamble as
firstly, the settlement and determination of certain disputes
which have arisen in the district of Champaran between land-
lords and tenants regarding certain obligations of the said
tenants, and, secondly, to establish a system of penalties for
the taking of abwab similar to the penalties which, under sec-
tion 58 of the Bengal Tenancy Act, can be imposed upon a
landlord who refuses or neglects to give a legal receipt for
rent ; and before I attempt to explain to the Council the nature
of the obligations with which the Bill deals, and the method
of dealing with them, I would ask for the forbearance of
Hon'ble Members while I refer as briefly as possible to some
of the more recent stages of the past history of the relations
between the indigo-planting community and the cultivators of
Tirhut and especially of Champaran.

" The conditions under which indigo ha.s been grown has
fceen repeatedly under the notice of Government for nearly sixty
years past commencing from the time when disputes in Lower
Bengal led to the appointment of the Indigo Commission, as a
result of which indigo rapidly disappeared in Bengal proper.
In that enquiry the conditions in Tirhut were more or less a
side issue, indeed they were in some ways admitted to be an
improvement on the Bengal system, notably in the matter of
advances which could not accumulate against a raiyat In such
a way as to keep him in perpetual debt to the factory ; but it
is astonishing how even in those early times the causes of
complaint *were much the same as have constantly cropped up

204

APPENDIX A 205

since and have but now forced themselves once more upon the
Committee whose recent enquiries have led to the framing of
this Bill. We find the same complaint that land is cultivated
at a loss by the raiyat, that there is no gurantee against agree-
ments being taken under compulsion, that theraiyat is deprived
of the use of his best land, and that factory servants are fre-
quently oppressive and extortionate. These were the causes
which led to the Indigo Commission in Bengal in 1860, and we
find them repeated in a memorandum by the Commissioner of
Tirhut in 1867, when trouble first began to show itself in the
Champaran district. Indigo, it was said, required much labour
and trouble and led to harassment by the factory servants, and
it did not pay as compared with other crops, but the raiyat
could not keep away from it, partly because he could not resist
the undertaking that his rent would not be enhanced so long
as he grew indigo, partly because he could not resist the temp-
tation of an advance, and partly because various methods of
persuasion were forthcoming to induce him to sign on. That
trouble occurred, as I have said, in 1867, and it originated
in Lalsaraya factory, the bungalow of which was burnt down*
though whether by accident or by arson it is not possible to-
say. The trouble spread rapidly, but having Attracted the at-
tention of the local officers and of Government was settled for
the time being on the recommendation of the Commissioner
by an enhancement of the rates paid for indigo from rates
varying from about Rs. 5 to Rs. 6 per bigha to a rate averaging
about Rs. 7-15-0 per bigha of 6J cubits laggi. The matter was
duly reported to the Government of India, and in making the
report the Local Government said that the time had passed
when it could be hoped to carry on an indigo concern profitably
by forcing on the raiyats a cultivation and labour which is
to them unprofitable; the necessity of giving an adequate re-
muneration had been recognized by the planters although they
had too long refused to recognize the necessity of making such
an advance in price, but the managers of concerns now savr
clearly the danger which they had so narrowly escaped, ' and
would, hi their own interest, be careful to~guard against falling-
into such ah -error again. Government did not, therefore, wish
to take any further steps. The Government of India accepted
the Local Government's recommendation, but expressed the
significant fear (I am speaking now of events which occurred

206 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

no less than fifty years ago) that the evils of the system were
so great that the interposition of Government might become
unavoidable, unless measures were taken to remove such ele-
ments of the system as were unjust and oppressive.

" The increase in the rate per btgha paid for indigo appears
to have smoothed matters down for a short time, but com-
plaints constantly arose as to the objectionable nature of the
whole system of asamiwar indigo and as , early as 1871 in
reviewing the Annual Administration Report of the Commis-
sioner of the Patna Division, the Lieutenant-Governor re-
marked again on the practice under which raiyats are com-
pelled to give up a portion of their land as presenting a com-
pulsory feature contrary to free-trade principles, it being ob-
vious that no person of power and influence equal to that
of the planter himself would think as a matter of business
of entering into such an agreement. Complaints continued up
to 1875, when the Commissioner of Patna suggested an Indigo
Commission to enquire into the whole question, but the sug-
gestion was put aside as likely to cause considerable dsiturb-
ance, and on the ground that there was no general manifestation
of widespread discontent such as to render a Commission
necessary. Government contented itself with a review of the
existing law and a warning to Magistrates to administer the
law vigorously and impartially.

"In 1877 the position was again reviewed chiefly with
reference to the Muzafifarpur district and the then Commis-
sioner, Mr. Stuart Bayley, wrote that although he concurred
in Sir Richard Temple's opinion that a Commission was not
necessary, yet the fact remained that there was much discon-
tent manifest enough to local officers. Attention was again
called to the unfairness of the asamiwar system of cultivation
and to various other abuses, such as the thikadari system under
which whole villages were leased from the zamindar, a want
of regard to occupancy-rights and the practice of changing
good lands for bad which apparently then prevailed in
Muzaffarpur. The result was the formation of the Bihar
Planters' Association in 1878 by which a set of rules were
drawn up, the chief innovation being a further rise in the
price per bigha paid for indigo, which was now advanced from
Rs. 7-15-0 to Rs. 9 in addition to the proportionate rent for
the land under indigo.

APPENDIX A 207

" Thenceforth for some years the relations between the
planters and raiyats seem to have improved and all continued
smooth on the surface until the year 1908, when the disturb-
ances broke out in Bettiah which eventually led to the enquiry
by Mr. Gourlay, a former Sub-divisional Officer of Bettiah. The
result of that enquiry was a re-statement of all the old grievan-
ces which had figured in all previous enquiries. Mr. Gourlay
found that the cultivation of indigo on the asamtwar system
did not pay the raiyat, that the raiyat had to give up his best
lands for indigo, that the cultivation required labour which
could be employed more profitably elsewhere, and generally,
that the system was irksome and led to oppression by the
factory servants. The main upshot of this import was a further
rise in the price of indigo by an average of 12 per cent, a
reduction by the Association of the indigo lands, commonly
known as the indigo lagan, from 3 kathas per bigha to 2
katfias, and the prohibition of entering into a contract under
the satta system to grow any crop other than indigo.

" For a time these concessions seemed to have met the
needs of the case and things remained quiet. Owing to the
competition of synthetic indigo the value of the natural dye
had much declined and the necessity of keeping up indigo had
declined with the reduction in profits. Certain of the concerns
seeing that there was no longer any profit to be made out of
indigo and that the agreements by which the raiyats were
bound to cultivate indigo on three selected kathas out of each
bigha of their holdings were of no use to them, proceeded to
levy yearly a certain amount from the raiyats as a condition
of letting them off the cultivation of indigo. This was known
as hunda and it had in fact been levied as early as 1905, that
is to say, before the Gourlay enquiry. The demand was resisted
in some cases, and the matter was consequently reported to
the Board of Revenue, and it was held that the levy of hunda
must cease, though compensation might be taken in cases
where the factory still bona fide wanted the indigo contract
fulfilled but th*e raiyat wilfully or negligently failed to carry
it out.

" The next phase was the initiation of what has now come
to be known as sharahbeM. Being precluded from taking
yearly hunda from the raiyats as an equivalent for being let
off the cultivation of indigo, the Motihari concern announced

208 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

its desire in 1912 to commute the obligation altogether in the
mukerrari villages taking instead an enhancement, of the rent,
which, it was said was exceptionally low, having been exempt-
ed from enhancement in consideration of the undertaking or
customary obligation to grow indigo. The Manager asked the
Board through the local officers whether the legality of such
action was admitted, but the Board held that the existence
of an obligation to grow indigo as an incidence of the Tenancy,
which alone could make any enhancement of over two annas
per rupee legal under the Bengal Tenancy Act, was a question
of fact as to which they could not express any opinion. There-
after the practice of commuting the indigo obligation in the
form of sharahbeshi was regularly adopted both in the Moti-
hari concern and in others of the chief concerns in Cham-
paran.

" So far with regard to mukarrari villages. But in the
temporarily-leased villages it became expedient to find sdfme
other form of commuting the indigo obligation because, when
the lease expired, the increase in rent would mainly go to the
landlord, i.e., to the Bettiah Raj* and only a small proportion
to the lessee or thikadar, supposing the lease to be renewed.
The result was the taking in the temporarily-leased village of
what is now generally known as tawan or a lump sum paid
by the raiyat in perpetual liquidation of the obligation to grow
indigo.

" I shall refer to sharahbeshi and tawan more particularly
later on, in connection with the recommendations of the Com-
mittee and the provisions of the Bill. I only mention them
now as recent phases in the history of indigo cultivation in the
district, phases which, it will be remarked, are intimately con-
nected with and in fact* the immediaet outcome of the system
of ttnkathia or the compulsory growing of indigo (as the result
either of a contract or of an obligation incident to the tenancy)
on a fixed proportion but by no means a fixed part, of the
raiyaVs holding.

"The last stage of the history commences from the year
1912-13 when a number of petitions were filed containing
various complaints regarding compulsion in the execution of
indigo sattat, levy of painkharach and other abwabs and fines,
the forcible taking of ploughs and labour without payment, and
so forth. The petitions were sent to the Settlement Officer for

APPENDIX A 209

report, the revision settlement having by that time commenced
in the district. Subsequently a fresh lot of petitions was re*
ceived from the northern part of the district where indigo was
not grown to any appreciable extent, the complaints being
mainly about the levy of abwab and fines. These also were
sent for report to the Settlement Officer. The enquiries in-
volved took a considerable time, and the general result was
that the first batch of petitions were found to be for the most
part groundless, but that serious abuses in the nature of ex-
actions of abwab, which practically doubled the legal rent, were
found to be prevalent throughout the north of the district
both in the Ramnagar Estate 'and in the Bettiah Raj villages
which were in lease to several Mkadars. These latter were
at once told that the renewal of their leases would be condi-
tional on the entire stoppage of the collection of abwab, and
later on steps were taken to obtain control in the Ramnagar
Estate by declaring under the Court of Wards Act the lady,
in whose possession the estate was, to be incompetent of
management and by assuming management.

" This was the state of affairs when Mr. Gandhi was in-
duced to visit the district and the presence and actions of
himself and his assistants created a tension which rendered it
necessary to appoint the Committee of Enquiry which has
recently finished its work and the recommendations of which
have resulted in the Bill which I am now laying before the
Council. The report of the Committee has been published with
Government's Resolution thereon and they are fresh in your
memories and I need not summarize them at this point.

" I have gone at what I am afraid is rather wearisome
length into the past history of what may be perhaps best
described as the indigo difficulty, because it is constantly as-
serted, and I have myself often heard it said, that there is in
reality nothing wrong or rotten in the state of affairs, that
everyone concerned is perfectly happy so long as he is Jeft
alone, and that it is only when outside influences and agitators
come in that any trouble is experienced. I submit that this
contention is altogether untenable in the light of the history
of the past fifty years of which I have endeavoured to present
to the Council a brief sketch. What is it we find on each
individual occasion when fresh attention has been, at remark*
ably short intervals, drawn once more to the conditions of the

210 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

production of the indigo plant ? We do not find on each occa-
sion that some fresh little matter has gone wrong which can
be easily adjusted, but we find on every occasion alike that it
is the system itself which is condemned as being inherently
wrong and impossible, and we see also repeated time after
time the utter futility of bringing the matter to any lasting or
satisfactory settlement by the only solutions that have so far
been attempted, namely, an enhancement of the price paid for
Indigo and a reduction of the tenant's burden by reducing the
limit of the proportion of his land which he would be required
to earmark for indigo cultivation. Repeatedly these expedients
have been 'tried repeatedly the"y have failed to effect a lasting
solution, partly because they could not be universally enforced
but chiefly because no tinkering can set right a system which
is in itself inherently rotten and open to abuse. And in this
connection I would pay a tribute to the Bihar Planters' Asso-
ciation which has honestly and at all times done its best to
put things right and do what appeared to be just and called for.
But the Association is not omnipotent it can only control
its own members and it cannot force into its fold those who in
order to evade its rules or for other reasons choose to remain
outside. Nor have the tools at its command been efficient. As
an association of persons whose own interests were involved
it could scarcely strike at the real root of the evils and it could
therefore only employ temporizing methods which could result
in no permanent settlement. Government alone, and that only
by legislation, can kill the real root of the disease, and I con-
tend that history for fifty years and more has been building
up a case for drastic action by Government and that the find-
ings of the recent Committee, findings which I need not set
forth at length because they have merely repeated once more
what has been found time after time before, have merely set
the keystone on the case for interference.

. " Now the root of the evil is the tinkathia system under
which the raiyat is bound either by a contract or as an incident
of his tenure to cultivate indigo in a proportion of his land to
be selected each year by the factory. It is this obligation
which clause 3 of the Bill is intended to abolish once and for
all in the Champaran district. The abolition applies not only
to cases where the tinkathia is dependent on an Incident of
the tenancy, but also to cases where it is dependent on a mere

APPENDIX A 211

civil contract between the factory and the raiyat and we have
heard a good deal in certain papers about the iniquity and
illegality of putting a sudden end to contracts which have been
already entered into. As to the legal aspect I can only say
that I am not aware, and as the Government of India have
sanctioned the introduction of this Bill, they also are apparent-
ly not aware, of any legal constitutional bar to an enactment
being passed which will have the effect of closing down exist-
ing contracts, should it be deemed necessary to do so in the
pursuit of justice and. good administration. Put baldly and
without adequate explanation, it certainly sounds an extreme
measure to bar existing contracts, however doubtful they
might be but the circumstances in this case are peculiar the
fact being that in the vast majority of cases the indigo obliga-
tion has already Ijeen commuted on the initiative of the plant-
ers themselves in the shape either of sharahb<shi or of tawan,
while in cases where it is based on an incident of the tenancy,
it will now under clause 4 of the Bill be commuted by way of
sharahbeshi. The Bill also provides for the proportionate re-
turn of advances where such have been taken and have not
been already fully worked off. The iniquity of the termination
of the contracts disappears therefore in the light of the com-
pensation which has already been taken in most cases and in
other cases will be taken, and the practical effect of the clause
will merely be to prevent any revival of the tinkathia system
in the future, a provision the necessity of which has, as I have
already shown been amply demonstrated. It will be observed
that the abolition and prohibition of the contracts referred to
in this clause of the Bill is not confined to indigo but covers
the case of any other kind of crop also. This has been done
deliberately because it has been found in some cases that cer-
tain concerns, when the growing and manufacturing of indigo
became no longer lucrative, attempted to create a liability on
the part of their tenants to grow for the Factory some other
specified crop in place of indigo, a procedure which of course
led to a state of things just as objectionable as it was before
when the tenant was only bound to grow indigo.

" I now come to clause 4 (I) (a) of the Bill and I am
afraid that I am here beginning to enter upon delicate ground.
The clause lays down that where an enhancement of rent
has been taken in lieu of the obligation to grow a particular

212 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

crop, the enhancement, that is, the additional rent added by
the enhancement, shall be reduced by a certain specified pro-
portion, viz., 20 per cent in the case of the Turkaulia concern
and 26 per cent in the case of other concerns. This peculiar
provision appears to the observer, and in fact is, entirely arbi-
trary, and some explanation of it is necessary. It was the
outcome of pure compromise. The members of the Committee
unanimously considered that the enhancements which had
been taken by the five concerns, which alone took sharahbeshi,
were excessive, representing as they did anything from 50 to
75 per cent on the previously existing rental. It was not over-
looked that the rents were previously very low and had been
allowed to remain so in consideration of the indigo liability,
but even when due allowance was made for this, a sudden
enhancement of from 50 to 75 per cent w^s admitted to be
excessive ; and as there was no exact standard that could be
utilized, the amount to be reduced was, after much discussion,
fixed by agreement with the principal factories concerned. The
delicacy of the situation, to which I have referred, arises from
the fact that the manager of one of those principal factories
has since thought fit to repudiate the agreement in the public
press on the ground that he had been led to believe that the
Committee were not going to interfere in any way with the
sums which have been taken as tawan or lump compensation
for the abandonment of the indigo obligation in the tempo-
rarily-leased villages of the Bettiah Raj in which sharahbeshi
could not be, or was not taken. It was not the function of
Government to enter into a controversy in the public press,
but I take this opportunity of stating emphatically before this
Council that Government are in possession of information
which fully entitles them to disregard that repudiation as
wholly unjustified by the actual facts, and they have accord-
ingly framed this clause of the Bill in accordance with the
unanimous recommendation of the Committee and in accord-
ance with the agreement which was entered into with the Com-
mittee before they made their recommendation. The solution
is, as I have already stated, an arbitrary one, but in the opinion
of the Government it is a just and reasonable solution and is,
or ought to be, binding upon those who made it.

" I may also impress upon the Council the very important
consideration that the agreement about skarahbeshi establishes

APPENDIX A 213

a large and certain gain to each of the factories concerned as
against a possible and almost complete loss should this Bill not
be passed into law. The reason of this is that the question of
the legality of sharahbeshi has never yet been finally adjudi-
cated upon by the law-courts. The test case which is now
pending in the High Court is that brought by certain raiyat$
against the Turkaulia concern denying all obligation to grow
indigo under satta or otherwise. The existence of the obliga-
tion tp grow indigo as an incident of the tenancy is an issue
in that case. The original court gave it in favour of the
factory, the first appellate court upset the decision as regards
five holdings out of nine. The High Court may of course
restore the finding of the Munsiff but on the other hand it may
go even further than the first appellate court and hold that
in no case was the growing of indigo an incident under proviso
(iii) to section 29. Should they do so the factories will stand
to lose all sharahbeshi whereas under the Bill which is now
before the Council they retain it all, less a fair and reasonable
reduction. I understand that the planters' representative on
the Committee, as also the consenting factories, or at least
two of them, were much impressed by this aspect of the case.

" The question of the refund of the tawan which has been
taken in the temporarily-leased villages is totally separate from
the question of reduction of sharahbeshi rents and was quite
separately dealt with by the Committee. It could not be en-
forced by legislation and it therefore does not figure in this
Bill ; but at the same time, so far as Government are informed,
it is not true to allege that the parties to the agreement about
sharahbeshi were not all cognizant of the Committee's inten-
tion as to tawan, while as regards the equity of a refund of
some portion of the latter, it is only necessary to refer to the
figures which Mr. Irwin has himself given in his letter and
in his evidence before the Committee. He claims to have levied
no less than Rs. 3,20,000 as tawan, while in his written state-
ment he says that Rs. 6,60,000 in round figures was collected
as rent in the ih\ka villages in five years, or an average of some
Rs. 1,30,000 per year. He thus mulcted the tenants to the tune
of nearly three years rental when his own leases were being
renewed from year to year, or looking at it in another way, he
levied tawan at Rs. 75 on the indigo lagan bigha, being equi-
valent to a levy of 3/20th of that amount or Rs. 11-4-0 on the

214 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

jamabandi bigha. His sharahbeshi worked out an average of
Re. 1-14-0 per jamabandi bigha, so that he levied six years'
purchase from his raiyots for freedom from an obligation which
had practically become defunct.

" To return to sharahbeshi. If it is equitable to take a
reduction by agreement in the case of the three big factories,
which contain 95 per cent of sharahteshi rents taken, it is
equally just and reasonable to extend the reduction to the
two minor concerns which did not enter into the agreement
but in which also sharahbeshi was taken to an extent not less
onerous than in the case of the three principal factories. On
the other hand, inasmuch as the compromise in the form of
admitting that the taking of compensation in the form of
sharahbeshi for the loss of the indigo obligation was in a
certain degree fair and reasonable, it is enacted in clause
4 (I) (b) of the Bill that where the obligation is entered in the
record and is therefore known to exist, but has not been taken,
a corresponding enhancement will now be made in the rents.
With the exception of the Rajghat factory which is being
specially dealt with by a reference to the Government of India,
the Committee have not mentioned any case in which no objec-
tion to grow indigo was claimed and no sharahbeshi or tawan
taken, but in which sattas are still current. It is understood
that there are no, or at any rate few, such cases, but should
any be found, their position can be considered hereafter when
this Bill is being considered in Select Committee. Probably
the simplest and most satisfactory way of meeting the difficulty
would be to allow the sattas in such cases to run for a reason-
able term of years before their extinction would come into
force, a method which has, I think, been suggested in some
of the letters which have recently appeared in the daily press.

" The remaining provisions of the Bill require little notice.
Clause 4 (2) provides for the necessary alterations in the
record of rights and also prescribes the date from which the
adjusted rentals will come into force. This date, namely, the
1st October, 1917, corresponding with the commencement of
the Fasli year 1325, formed part of the agreement which was
entered into before the Committee of Enquiry.

"Clause 5 is self-explanatory and makes any contract for
the supply of land produce at a fixed price invalid if the
contract purports to be for a longer period than three years or

APPENDIX A 215

if the amount of the produce contracted for is to be determined
otherwise than by actual weight or appraisement of weight.
The limitation of the term is designed to guard against ini-
quities which may arise owing to enhancement of values in
any considerable period, while the limitation of the methods
of determining the produce is intended to prevent the produce
of any particular area, the value of which cannot of course
be foreseen, from being sold forward at a fixed price.

"Clause 6 has been inserted on account of its having been
clearly shown both before the Committee and in previous
settlement inquiries, that a variety of abwab have been com-
monly levied in excess of and in addition to the legal rent and
cesses both by thikadars and by proprietors, especially in the
northern portion of the district. In order to discourage such
illegal exactions it is necessary to give the Collector of the
district the same power of imposing a penalty after a summary
inquiry as is given by section 58 of the Bengal Tenancy Act in
cases of withholding proper receipts. A slight addition has
been made enabling the Collector to act on his own motion
and not merely on complaint or the report of a Civil Court.
The raiyats of the northern portions of the district are very
backward and appear in spite of one previous settlement record
to have little or no idea of what their legal liabilities are, A
few examples made by the Collector will, it is hoped, have
the effect of teaching them the meaning of a legal rent beyond
which the landlord must not go.

" I have now finished with the provisions of the Bill, but
before I resume my. seat I should like, if the Council will grant
me their forbearance for one minute longer, to revert to the
vexed question of tawan. I have already shown that the sup-
position that its partial refund came as a thunderbolt to the
planters is a fallacious supposition. I have also shown,
although tawan finds no part in this Bill, that the extent to
which it was levied was inequitable. But there is yet another
contention about this form of commuted obligation, with regard
to which I desire to say a few words. It has been claimed
in the public press that the levy of tawan was approved by
Government and definitely sanctioned by Mr. Rainy when he
was Collector of Champaran, who is said both in writing and
In a certain speech which he delivered at some function or

216 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

other to have given the institution of tawan his official bless-
ing. I cannot arrive at any trace of the speech referred to,
neither have I been able to procure a copy of the letter in
which Mr. Rainy is said to have approved of the taking of
tawan but having been Member of the Board of Revenue at
the time I have a very clear recollection of what really took
place. As 1 have already explained, the original form of com-
pensation for remission of the indigo obligation in the thika
villages was a yearly compensation and it was forbidden by
the Board of Revenue except where the raiyot had been guilty
of deliberate damage or neglect. Subsequently the manager of
the Motihari concern hit upon the new expedient of taking
compensation in the form not of a yearly fee but of a lump
sum down which freed the raiyat once and for all from the
obligation. He then asked the Collector, Mr. Rainy, if such
compensation now known as tawan, would be permitted by
the authorities. In sending up the case Mr. Rainy said that
he would not recommend the prohibition of this form of com-
pensation, as it was a matter between the raiyat and the fac-
tory, and it was most desirable from all points of view to
encourage to the utmost disappearance of the tinkathia system,
a disappearance which Mr. Irwin himself had admitted ' would
be to the great advantage of everybody concerned, official, Raj,
planter, and raiyat " The Commissioner supported Mr. Rainy's
view, which was referred by the Board of Government, and or-
ders were eventually passed that if this new kind of tnwon were
taken by voluntary agreement Government would not interfere
with it ; but it must be distinctly understood that it could in no
way interfere with the right of the Raj to apply for an enhance-
ment of the rents of the raiyats under the Bengal Tenancy Act
at the revision settlement when it came on. It will be observed
that the alleged approval of the higher authorities was a purely
negative statement, and it was accompanied by a warning
which was in fact disregarded when tawan was taken at the
rate at which it was taken, because it became at once clear
that when the raiyat consented to pay at the rate of Rs. 50
to Rs. 100 per bigha of indigo lagan he must have been under
the impression that he was paying not only for the extinction
of one or two year's liability to indigo or even for the extinc-
tion of liability coincident with the satta, but was also paying
at the same time for a permanent exemption from enhancement

APPENDIX A 217

of rent. The result has been that the Committee have been
compelled to recommend in paragraph II of their report that
the Court of Wards should abstain for seven years from taking
any enhancement, and Government on behalf of the Court of
Wards have been compelled to accept the justness of the
recommendation and to order that it shall be carried out. I fail
to see how in these circumstances any sane man can maintain
that an order for a refund of a substantial proportion of the
tawan taken is an improper or unjust order.

" We are now discussing only the principles of the Bill.
If the motion which I am making is carried I shall then move
that the Bill be relegated to a Select Committee in which the
details of its provisions will be fully discussed and considered
and on which the two Hon'ble Members who are here as repre-
senting the Bihar planters will of course find a place.

" I have now, Sir, come to the end of my remarks and I
must apologize to the Council for having occupied so much of
its time. I claim to have established :

First, that as the Committee have put it, the tinkathia
system has outlived its day and must perforce disappear,
Mr. Irwin has himself admitted that the sooner it di
appears the better for everybody.

Secondly, that in its disappearance as regulated by this
Bill, no injustice has been done to anyone.

Thirdly, that the introduction of the side issue of tawan
avails nothing so far as this Bill is concerned because it is
unconnected with it and irrelevant, but that at the same
time it was in no way sprung as a surprise upon the plant-
ing community, while as a distinct and separate measure
the refund is both just and necessary.
" Government have no desire to strike a blow at the indigo
industry, nor indeed, if they had such a desire, could it achieve
it through the provisions of this Bill, for the simple reason that
if indigo is sound commercially it can be grown and manufac-
tured on open business terms and yet with a good profit. If it
is dependent on conditions which are unsound and oppressive
the sooner it disappears from off the face of the country, the
bettet it will be. The wish of Government is simply to put an
end to conditions in which the raiyat cultivator owing to his
agrarian relations with the planter is unable to hold his own
and can be made, and sometimes is made, to do things which in

218 SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

his heart of hearts he would never consent to do. Nor, Sir, do
Government suffer from any lack of appreciation of the many
and great services which the indigo planters of Bihar have
constantly rendered to the province in which they live. We
cannot perhaps go so far as to admit that some of them mag-
nanimously took up mokarrari leases of Bettiah villages with
the sole object of paying out of their own pockets the interest
on the Sterling Loan, as a recent writer to the daily papers
would apparently have people believe, but we can and do
give the Bihar planters as a class the fullest credit for having
'proved themselves good and considerate landlords at all times,
and especially in times of flood and famine, as well as for the
unswerving loyalty with which they have invariably supported
Government and striven to meet their wishes. Nor do we
underestimate the value of the capital which the European
planter alone has been both able and willing to bring into the
districts of Tirhut. But deep as these feelings are they would
in no degree avail us as an excuse if we had decided to gloss
over serious abuses and leave them untouched, now that their
existence has been forced home upon us by recent events and
recent enquiries. It is for the removal of some of the most
patent of those evils that this Bill has been brought before the
Council, and I accordingly ask the Council's leave to introduce
it and let it run its course until it eventually, with such modi-
fications as may hereafter seem just and necessary, becomes
part of the law of Bihar and Orissa."

APPENDIX B

THE IJST OP VOLUNTEERS FROM THE
BOMBAY PRESIDENCY

1. Dr. Hari Shrikrishna Dev, L.M. S.,

2. Sjt. Baban Gopal Gokhale

3. Mahadev Haribhai Desai

4. Narahart Dwarkadas Parikh

5. Brajlal Bhimji Rupani

6. Chhotelal Jain

7. Devdas Gandhi

8. Surendraji

9. Balkrishna Yogeshwar Purohit

10. Sadashiv Lakshman Soman,

B. A., LL. B.,

11. Narayan Tammaji Katagade

alias Pundalikji

12. Vishnu Sitaram Randive alias Appaji

13. Eknath Vasudev Kshire

14. Pranlal Prabhuram Yogi

15. Shri Shankarrao Dev, B. A.,

Dhulia
Bombay

Satyagraha Ashram
Ahmedabad

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Do.

Belgaum

Do.
Dhulia

Do.

Lilia, Bhavnagar
Poona

LADY VOLUNTEERS
1. Shrimati Kasturbai Wife of Mahatmaji

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Avantikabai
Durgabai
Manibai
Anandibai
Vinapani Sahu

Baban Gokhale
Mahadev Desai
, Narahariji
Mahila Ashram, Poona
Wife of Sjt. Laxminara-
yan Sahu, member of the
Servants of India Society

219

INDEX

Abwabs, 47-48, 83-94
Ajatashatru, of Magadha, 8
Aliwardikhan, invaded Bettiah, 9
Andrews, C. R, 109
Anti- English movement, 152
Antipathy between Bengalees

and Biharees, 38
Asamiwar, 13, 26, 41

Bengal, its agitation against
indigo, 17; its tenants' grievan-
ces, 19:-Legislative Council on
Champaran disturbances, 35-36;
-Tenancy Act, 50, 59

Bengalees, alleged to have
engineered agitation, 36, 38

Bettiah Raj, 5-6, 11, 28, 65-66,
82;-agitation due to .outsiders,
36;-agitation to stop indigo
cultivation, 33- 36; -fair is made
an instrument to propagate
stopping of indigo cultivation,
33; permits free irrigation, 32;
-planters' rights, 49

Bideha Raja, lived at Janakigarh,
7

Bihar, famine in , 1887, 28;
-Planters' Association's reso-
lution on indigo rent, 26-27;
separated from Bengal, 43

Birat Raja, his capital was in
Champaran, 7

Brajkishoreprasad, 41, 102; pre-
sides over the Bihar Provincial

Conference, 78; proposes reso-:.

lution on Enquiry Committee,

80

British Indian Association, 17
Buddha travelled through

Champaran, 8

Champaran, 3; -Agrarian Act,
190-93; -Agrarian Bill, 21, 41,
189, 204-18; -Agrarian Enquiry
Committee Report, 179-82;-its
history, 7-11; -its memorable
day, 112;-its two kinds of land,
4;-tenants shouted out their
grievances to King Emperor,
42

Cheddis, reigned over Champa-
ran, 9

Christian Missionaries, 17

Compulsion ' to , cultivate.' indigo,

39
Conspiracy, to drive sahibs out

of country, 38

Day, Lalbihari, draws a heart-
rending picture of Bengal ryot*
18

Decennial Settlement^lO 1 .. <> < V j
"Dharanidharbabu, v 104,, 109:; *$ ^
TShokraha,' story !'of nts^Factory,

143-46

'Dhruva, '.practised penance in
i.Champaran, \ 7

221

222

SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

Eden, Sir Ashley, his evidence
before Bengal Indigo Com-
mission, 18

Enhancement contracts, 53-56,
69-74; are illegal and void, 58

Enhanced rates, 51, 96; amounted
to 60% on the existing rental,
55; -their realization, 62-64

Enquiry Commission, its report,
19-20

Enquiry Committee, 18; its
appointment, 161-69; its work,
170-79; resolution on by
Indian N ational Congress,
Lucknow, 98; resolution on
by Provincial Conference
Bankipur, 79-80; signed a una-
nimous report, 178; was
suggested by European Defence
Association, 154

European Defence Association,
resolves against Gandhiji's
work in Champaran, 156

Factories, burnt, 147; responsi-
bility for burning, 153

Gajagraha, Puranic story of, 3
Gandhiji, anxious for a compro-
mise, 178; appointed on the
Enquiry Committee, 168;
arrives in Patna, 100; complains
about ryots being subjected to
pin-pricks by planters, 150-54;
describes his educational
experiment in Champaran,
198-99; gets ready the enquiry
work programme after his
arrest, 1]9; his method of social
work, 201-02; his pleader-
assistants are charged with

132; his statement in the Moti-
hari court, 115-16; interviews
Governor, 155-60; on his
mission, 150-54$ on purdah
system, 105; reaches Bettiah,
124; submits to Government
preliminary conclusions of his
enquiry, 133; proceeds to
Champaran to start enquiry,
104-05; served with a notice to
leave Motihari, 107-08; the
members of his social work
party, 196-97, 200, 219; starts
social work in Champaran, 195

German dyes, reduced indigo
price, 45

Ghose, Sir Rashbihari, 51

Government of Bihar, calls for
reports from district officers
and planters, 143; its resolution
on the Enquiry Commission,
165-68

Government of India, on indigo
cultivation, 24

Grant, Sir, John Peter, accepted
Commission's recommenda-
tions, 20

Gulab, Shaikh, takes a prominent
part in stopping indigo culti-
vation, 33

Haque, Mazharul, 100
Hardinge, Lord, grants certificate

to planters, 75-78
Harja, 45-69
Harshavardhana, Raja, reigned

over Champaran, 8
Hunda, 46-48, 63-65, 145

Indian National Congress,

INDEX

223

Indigo contracts, 22; forcibly

taken from tenants, 67
Indigo crop, its seasons, 17
Indigo cultivation, 11-13, 15;
and Europeans, 11; becomes
unprofitable, 45-46; criminal
cases regarding i 30; disap-
peared from Bengal, 20; its
various categories, 13-17
Indigo disturbances, in Champa-
ran, 21-25
Indigo factories, 4
Indigo, v. artificial dye, 74
Irwin, W. S., a prominent
planter, 157; writes to the
Press against the report of the
Enquiry Committee, 183-85
Istifanamas, 60-61

Jalaha Factory, 58

Janaki, took shelter after her

exile in Champaran, 7
Jugalkishor, Raja of Bettiah, 10

Kabulayat, 57

Kerr, Seton, President of the

Enquiry Commission, 18
Kripalani, Prof. 101
Kurtauli, 13-14
Kushki, 13-14

Lagan, 67-68
Lessees, perpetual, 66
Lichchhavis, reigned in Champa-
ran, 8

Macleod, James, King of planters,

21

Magadha Kingdom, 8
Malaviyaji Madanmohan, 109-10
Marsh, Alec, on the Enquiry

Commission, 164-65

Maude, on Champaran Agrarian

Bill, 21
Mokarri or perpetual rights, 66,

75, 135
Mokarridars or perpetual lessees

on a fixed rental, 49
Motihari, 5-6; factory introduces

Harja, 48
Mukerjee, Harishchandra, a

sympathizer of the Bengal

tenants, 17

Occupancy rights of Factory

owners, 13
Outsiders, alleged to foster

agitation in Bettiah, 36, 65;

instigated happy tenants, 97

Paddy, demanded by planters in

place of indigo, 47
Painkharcha, 83-85, 94
Permanent Settlement, 10, 83
Planters, and tenants, 65; begin
realizing damages from tenants,
48-49; devise means to transfer
loss to tenants, 46-47, 135;
their life in danger, 153; want
Gandhiji and his co-workers to
be removed from Champaran,
150

Planters 1 Association, 15
Polak, H. S., 109-10, 112
Rabi cultivation, forbidden on

indigo land, 40

Rajendrababu, begins along with
others recording the statements
of tenants, 112-20; explains to
the principal publicists the
situation in Champaran, 112;
is absent in Calcutta when
Gandhiji -arrived at Patna, 100;
undertakes to continue the

224

SATYAGRAHA IN CHAMPARAN

worK in case of Gandhiji's
arrest, 119

Ramchandra, fought with Lava
and Kusha in Champaran, 7

Ramnavamiprasad, 104, 109

Recording of tenants' statments,
commenced, 109

Relations between tenants and
planters, 69, 74

Revisional Survey and Settle-
ment, 93

Sale, John, a missionary and a
member of the Enquiry Com-
mission, 18

Sathi factory, excavated a canal
for indigo cultivation, 32;
gives up indigo cultivation, 31,
33; tenants refuse to pay water
tax, 32

Sattas, 15, 39, 136, 139

Sharahbeshi, 55-69, 74, 95, 135, 157

Shukla, Rajkumar, attends
Provincial Conference, 80; meets
Gandhiji at Calcutta, 100;
supports Enquiry Committee
resolution at Lucknow
Congress 99

Sitalrai, devotes himself to
uprooting the system of Indigo
cultivation, 33-35; sentenced to
imprisonment, 36

Sugar-cane cultivation, 11-13;

not profitable, 40
Synthetic indigo, its introduction
lowered price of the local

product, 135

Tawan, 45-69, 135

Temple, Richard, member of the
Enquiry Commission, 18, 25

Tenants, deprived of occupancy
rights, 59; executed hand bonds
while giving tawan, 67-68;
never willingly agreed to the
enhancement of rents, 52;
prevented by planters from
coming to Gandhiji, 150; sur-
render hunda lands, 145-46;
their complaints well-founded,
19, 93; their grievances, 17-28

Tinkathia, 13-14, 55, 74, 95, 135;
-root of all the troubles '.' of
tenants, 17

Valmiki, his ashram was in

Champaran, 7
Villages, given in perpetual leases

to planters for England's loan

to Bettiah Raj, 28

Zamindari, 10-12

Zamindars, gave their villages to

planters, 27
Zerait, 13